Random Map Generation with dice

 

Even I have to admit the system I tried earlier was.... tedious, non-inspiring, and ill conceived. However upon discovering a system much superior to my previous attempt, I adapted that to suit my taste.

For this you will need a number of D20s and D10s. The number of dice you use can be as random as grabbing a handful or determined by desired density and map size. For a sheet of paper 11"x17" using 20 D20s will give you a nice regional size map. If you want a larger scale map, add more dice. The reverse is like applying a zoom lens to a camera. Subtracting dice gives you a smaller region.

By now you have noticed the 2 blank D20s. Those are wildcards. They are there to give me options. They can be anything.

The D10s are used to determine populations. They are two different colors in case I want to get different races.

 

The Dice Keys:

 

Terrain

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

 

Population

1- Ruins

2- Thorpe

3- Hamlet

4- Village

5- Town

6- City

7- Keep

8- Freehold

9- Fortress/Metropolis

10- Mystery

 

As for the actual process, I can only tell you how I do it. I create a story while drawing the map. The map in this post was the direct result of needing a place for a Ancient Green Dragon. 

A little imagination with the right inspiration can get you some pretty interesting maps.

There are more than enough videos on youtube. Just do a search for "dice maps".

The Galdua Archipelago

 

Chicken Chasing: How I generate ideas

I have hobby a.d.d. Over the past 15 years (since my MS diagnosis) I have noted the decline in my ability to generate fresh ideas. Either for games or just art projects, incidences of writers block, drawing a complete blank and a general lack of direction are all things every Game Master has had to or will face one day.

During the course of my latest research project (cartography) I started looking for examples and tutorials. While surfing I came across a review for a world building book, "Talks a lot more about drawing styles and techniques than anything about creating ideas or understanding the mechanics of building a fictional world."  OK folks, you are not alone. Other people a looking for ways to generate their own ideas instead of having to resort to someone else's idea. It is true, there is nothing stopping you from buying a pre-written adventure campaign, and changing names and the order of the encounters. But that doesn't quite scratch the itch for actually coming up with an original idea.

So what I am going to do is describe what I do to get things moving in my head and create new ideas. It might work for you, it might not. This is what works for me.

1) Write EVERYTHING down. If your on the bus or in your car and you have an idea, WRITE IT DOWN, record it as a voice message on your phone. If you've been reading my other entries I have referred to the piles of scrap paper and reams of hand written notes and ideas. If I have and idea for a monster, a tactic, or even just a cool sounding name I'll write it down and set it with the other piles of random thoughts. All these piles of notes are not always about games. Some times It's a book title, or a quote or even just a sketch of an interesting object. Maybe a picture on my phone I saw something that made me pause, so I take a picture of it. You may not have a use for it right then, but hold on to it. It could be useful someday. A perfect example of this is this post , I wrote that prophecy when I was still a teenager. I am over 50 now. That prophecy helped me to develop a different idea. The Bloodrose campaign. That campaign grew out of several other ideas. I started with a desire to makes sense out of an old adventure module.

2) Read - Watch movies - Look around. Read everything you can get you hands on. Comic books, books on history, books on fictional history, books on science. How to do home repair. Seriously just read everything. Watch movies, watch parts of movies while surfing, watch old bad movies. Other than being a huge fan of a certain Titanosaurus whose name begins with "G", I own several and am always looking for old monster movies. Forbidden Planet - The Thing from another world (1956) - The Land that Time Forgot - The People that Time Forgot - Warlords of Alantis - War of the Gargantuas. Those are movies I watch and rewatch and rewatch and steal from repeatedly. Ever wanted to know what an Invisible Stalker looks like? Watch Forbidden Planet. I just recently acquired Warlords of Atlantis. It's an old Doug McClure movie. Other than seeing a vibrant example of a Murderhobo (Doug McClure's character) it gave me an idea for a campaign. Mash the 3 McClure movies together The Land, The People, and the Warlords... I got a Mysterious island with dinosaurs that has a portal leading to the 7 Cities of Atlantis. When I'm done renaming everything, you won't be able to recognize that I started with B movie plots.

3) Day Dream - Doodle - Chase Chickens. Most people have some down time during the course of a normal day. Yes I realize recent days have been anything but normal, however observing real world events can be useful. Watch people's reaction to the pandemic. Now go back to the big green G movies. Replace the big G with an invasion of something else and throw in a dash of Forbidden Planet (the invisible stalker) Huge events of death and destruction, and people don't believe that it's caused by a monster.... Not all your ideas will work out. Sometimes you'll hit a wall or come up with a objective so narrow it can't be accomplished. Put it in a drawer and come back to it later. You might end up tearing it apart and using parts in other things. As for chasing chickens.... The Angry GM has a podcast GM Word of the Week. Somewhere during one of those, he described his process for researching the chosen subject. He follows the subject down the Wikipedia rabbit hole. Put the subject into the search bar, read the article, then click the recommended links, outside links, get more information. You don't have to study, just browse or scan the articles. I chase chickens. It's kinda like shopping on Amazon, "People who looked at this item looked at..."

I was trying out my new Micron Pigmas when I doodled this...

I didn't use that particular face on my map, but I used a version of it. Work in progress show below.

4) Don't get tunnel vision. Don't tell yourself that you HAVE to finish the thing you're working on before you move to the next thing. If you do that, you run the risk of not liking it because it feels forced.

5) Keep your ideas modular. Got plot? Does it dead end? Go back to the start and start replacing events or encounters. Plug in different options. Do not get discouraged if it doesn't work, keep trying. "PUT IN THAT WORK DEVIN!" "TINY CIRCLES!"

6) Don't be afraid if it looks dumb. If you don't use it, it can serve as a lesson of what not to do. Ever had campaign die off because you and/or players couldn't get into it? Find out if it was too mundane or too icky and don't do that again.

7) Play or at least read the rules for empire building games or try the random dice map or play How to Host a Dungeon. I was playing HtHaD and then the cartography chicken ran in front of me.

During my discovery of cartography I ran across a YouTube video where the woman presenting makes a random map by dumping a bunch of dice on a blank sheet of paper. So I went back to cartoonish looking map I drew a few years ago and I am now in the process of inking. When I'm done writing this, I'll be retooling some things from this post on random terrain generation to use for creating random dice maps by the dice on paper method. I also ran across a fair number of excellent map makers. Check out WASD20 on his YouTube channel. Questing Beast has some good stuff as well.

8) Lastly... Be Patient. Don't try and force it by setting deadlines. Deadlines are for professionals. If you enjoy the subject you're dealing with, the time will fly by.

I certainly hope something in this post helps you guys.

Your brain and your creativity are muscles. Exercise them regularly.

Think before you speak. Read before you think.

How to Host a Dungeon: Salt Water flavored. Now with Ship wrecks!

Oki doki then...

I am still tinkering with HtHaD.    Obsessively even...

The Ophidians are still under construction, as is the terrain types. Desert, Tropics, etc. I did manage to get most of the kinks worked out of the Ichthyoids. I've also worked out some monster races. These are more or less decided on the fly, just keeping in mind the ocean theme for this game.

Ichthyoid civilization [Picture the Fish monsters from the movie Leviathan]

Ichthyoids originate from the deepest darkest regions of the ocean.The bony armor covering them serves them well as a brutal martial race. While they prefer the deep ocean for their large cities, they will establish colonies nearer to the surface to prey on the air breathers.

Draw constructions of the Ichthyoids in dark blue. Ichthyoid constructions are rounded amorphous rooms all attached to a main corridor that being very twisted and convoluted. Ichthyoids start with 4 population, 2 loot and a Spawning pit. They prefer natural caverns open to the sea for the spawning pits, if you don't have one, add one now ensuring it is connected to the ocean. This is the map I used for my game.

The Ichthyoid year:

In Spring the ichthyoids raid the air breathers on the surface world. If there are at least 4 population, roll 1d4 and subtract that many. Add 1 loot. I had originally thought about using 3 population to start, but as you will see later it makes for a very short age of civilization.

In Summer they hunt and fill the spawning pit with their eggs the chum of their prey.

In Fall they build. Build the following structures. 1 per year.

Armory
Shark stables
Oyster beds
Temple of Snurglefurp the Sea God.

In Winter the ichthyoids tend the spawning pit. Roll 1d4 and add that number of population. Drawing new rooms as needed to accommodate them.

The End of the Ichthyans: When the population reaches 12, immediately build a Temple to Snurglefurp the Sea God if you do not have one. Trade in all loot and replace with the "Artifact". The Artifact grants a +1 to encounter rolls for and group possessing it. Roll a d6 on a 1-4 the Ichthyans harness the power of the sea god and abandon the colony to make war on the air breathers. On a 5 or 6 the Ichthyans anger the sea god and he sends Ginormasquid the Terrible to destroy them. Ginormasquid the Terrible possesses the Artifact and becomes a wandering monster in the age of monsters.


What follows is a play test for an ocean theme.

The Primordial Age

The dice gave me an underground river, Mithral deposits and Jorix the Sea Dragon (Ancient Wyrm)

The Age of Civilization

The Ichthyoids arrive. I was going to have them build a spawning pit first thing but....

The Spring. They went raiding. Lost 1

Need to replace losses built a spawning pit, then mining.

This version of the spawning pit just gives +1 pop per year.

This where it all went wrong. Much bummin, heavy sigh. The Age of Civilization is over. I put in all this work, so lets see where it goes.

The Great Disaster revealed 3 natural caverns. Now with intriguing Plague scent!

The Age of Monsters.

The Surface Kingdoms set up shop.

The Delving group shows up. Troglodyte flavored, but because of copyright concerns, I'll call them Trurgs. Trurgs are immune to plague and suffer no losses.

The Breeder group is here. Let's go with some akin to Kuo-Toa. But again those pesky copyright thingys, we'll call these guys Gill Men. They were shrewd about their choice of residence, the Ichthyoid loot is still there...

The Surface Kingdoms turn: They Get 1 for the castle and start a fishing camp to support the castle.

Trurgs: Expand their ZOC.

Gill Men: Scoop up all treasure in range and breed.

New year: A Wandering Monster wanders in to the dungeon. Water Wyrds are not immune to plague, and did not choose wisely. They die and leave loot behind.

Surface Kingdoms: +1 to the castle and add a farm.

Trurgs: Expand ZOC. Snatch up 1 loot from the doomed water wyrds and lose 1 to ghosts..

Gill Men: Someone got a bit uppity and tunneled into the wrong cavern. They bribed Jorix.

Jorix is now awake. And hungry. Ignoring the walking filet-o-fish, he'll buy some munchies.

New Year:Forgot to roll for new monster groups. Oooopppsss!

Surface Kingdoms: +1 to Castle, 2nd farm, added a dungeon level.

Trurgs: Expand ZOC, snag 2nd loot from water wyrds corpses.

Looking these now, I just realized I skipped the Gill Men. So Jorix goes a wandering. The Gill Men are really opposed to being eaten. The bribe him again. So he's off to eat a fishermen.

New Year:

Oh Look! In keeping with a general plague theme, a special feature is indicated. Natural Cavern with a virulent strain apparently, Plague 4. Ewww!

Surface Kingdoms: Send some unsuspecting peasant from the castle to learn how to fish. I'm pretty sure I got interrupted during their turn because that's all I did with them.

Let this be a lesson kids. Takes better notes... Don't remember what gakked the Trurgs, but they are gone.

Gill Men: PLEASE DON'T EAT US! They bribed him again.

Jorix: Good Nyborg Man... But now I got the munchies.

New Year: A special feature. Disaster! Earthquake! What happens when there is a big earthquake at the bottom of the ocean? Tsunami! Rolled a 5 on a 1d8 to see how many air breathers went bye-bye.

Surface Kingdoms: "WTAF!?!?" Add 1 pop and 1 loot.

Gill Men: With more population than treasure to support it, half of them split looking for greener kelp beds.

Jorix: Tired of fast food kibble. He's on his way to find something crunchier than sashimi.

Happy New Year! Have a special feature. Now appearing in an extended stay... A Haunting.

Surface Kingdoms: Do you know how hard it is to salt water out of a dungeon? We need more help. +1 pop.

Gill Men: The Sea dragon is distracted, right? They lost the bribe roll. Tied on the encounter roll. I am kinda rooting for the Gill Men. They pulled a Bilbo and looted 1 while he was eating the Gill guy in the tunnel.

Jorix: No need to looking for Nemo, he's on your porch. Bye Gill Guy.

New year: Hmmm... Alpha Predator. Make something up... I really like Ilithids. Ulitharid iz here to eat yur BRAINNNZZZZ.

Surface Kingdoms: We gonna need more guys. Bored? Dig a dungeon level. Whoa! A cave.

Had a brain fart here too. I think the Gill Men turn met with Jorix and he ate one. Then Jorix decided a change of scenery was in order. And started looking for new digs.

Ulitharid: Squiddy went looking for brains and found dead things. Squiddy lost. Bye Squiddy.

New Year: and what do I get? Gnomes... yay... fly a flag. They found some loot left in their new house by the previous tenants.

Surface Kingdom: Why don't you guys go a look around in the caves you found... Short dudes with big noses? Loot! I can finally get the subdivision I always wanted.

Gill Men: I ran out of black stones, used a d6. They breed. It's getting very late in the evening at this point and I'm starting to forget things.

Jorix: Still looking for a better living situation. He finds the gnomes... and their shineys. Gnomes taste better than fish. With a surprise in every box!

New Year: Someone... *cough - JORIX! - cough* left the front door to the dungeon open, and now we have Crabs. Giant Ones. Wandering Monsters.

Surface Kingdoms: Humans had no idea the remaining gnomes had become dragon chow. How could they? The entire expedition also became dragon chow. Jorix is within spitting distance of ending the age of monsters...

Crabs: K, let's split up. The Gill Guys are eating good tonight! They worked up a mighty hunger mining Mithral.

New Year: Yet another natural cavern... Those are rapidly becoming trite. How else can I get gems there? Shipwreck!

Surface Kingdoms: Dragons can really hold a grudge.

The Gill Men Oozzed out more tad poles, and scooped up the gems that someone careless left on their front doorstep. Jorix paid a visit to the castle and not finding any treasure to loot decides to sample to local street fare.

I forgot to move a population from a farm to the castle, and went straight to Gill Men. So sue me, it was close to 9:30pm. I'm old and I get tired easily. Gill Guys: Breed.

Crabs: Another one becomes fish food.

Jorix goes a wandering on the surface and demands tribute from the air breathers. They of course comply, not really wanting to become dragon chow. Thus begins the Age of Villany. I'll deal with that later. I had to sleep.