Campaign Map and Landmark Filling

[Blorpy]

Map The Blank 2021-12-20T08 18 10.584Z.png (1015.48 KiB) Viewed 3454 times

Thought I'd share my current campaign map so far! It's a work in progress, of course, but I suspect that is true of all campaign maps. I am using 3 mile hexes. Most of the content is home-brew, though some of the locations are from BFRPG modules! That northern area, for instance, is the Chaotic Caves. That castle in the woods is from Call of Doom. The other is Ruin of Darkfir. And that west-most village is Blackapple. I'll add more modules as I need them, but for now there is much more content than the PCs are likely to get to.

I also wanted to share some info on how I fill hexes to make them more interesting and so that PCs can find their way around. Each of my hexes has a landmark, consisting of a one sentence description (or more if needed), that I generated using a custom d100 list. These are recorded on a notepad full of coordinates. I also place specific locations if I want, and the d100 list is more of a prompt than a hard and fast rule. If something comes up that doesn't make sense then I'll add something else or interpret it in a way that does make sense. Note that the list is not at all refined as it was only intended for my own use. As for encounters, I use a random process that I won't go into here.

I know, it looks like a lot of work, and it is, but once it’s done it’s done. As long as we’re playing in the same realm for a good while I barely have to prep at all. Just have consider how the game world is reacting to the PC’s actions and the rest is pretty easy.

I'm also curious what other people's hexcrawl protocol is, as this is relatively new to me. I came from the 3.5 school of DMing which didn't have a lot to say about hexcrawls.

d100 Hex Crawl Landmarks:

1-Ancient Structure
2-Beacon
3-Camp: enemies/merchants/non-human/religious/knights/adventurers
4-Canal
5-Castle
6-Cave/Burrow
7-Cliff/Canyon/Ridge
8-Dam
9-Crossing
10-Defensible Area – ruins or structure
11-Fertile Valley
12-Fort
13-Good Land for farming, grazing, timber
14-Good Water
15-Hazard
16-Holy Place
17-Isolated Mountain
18-Lake
19-Mine: abandoned or working, surface or underground
20-Monster
21-Non-Humans
22-Place of Magic
23-Precious minerals – gold, silver, emeralds, onyx, lodestone
24-Quarry
25-Recluse: hermit, outlaws, cloistered nunnery, noble, academic researcher, brotherhood, exotic/bizarre race, NPC from past
26-Resources: mining (precious or quarry), alchemic, food, medical, magical
27-River
28-Road/path/trail/game trail
29-Ruins: well, mine, obscured road
30-Settlement – camp, household, village
31-Shrine
32-Destruction – knocked down trees, burned village, slaughtered animals
33-Town
34-Tunnel
35-Volcano
36-Ancient Structure
37-Beacon/light house/signal tower
38-Caves
39-Crossing: ford, bridge, ferry, pass
40-Border: Dam, wall, cliff, territorial border, markings, chasm
41-Hostile Terrain: quicksand, unstable scree, gas seep, sink hole
42-impass gorge, river, thorns, cliff, etc
43-Natural Wonder – giant tree, waterfall, geyser, hotsprings
44-Newly abandoned ghosttown, campsite, building, home
45-Place of the dead: tomb, graveyard, cairn
46-Monument: venerable or recent – monolith, statue, rune stone, obelisk
47-Lonely structure: tower, home, stable
48-Water source – spring, well, stream, river, aqueduct, pond, basin, channel
49-Abandoned item: wagon, horse, boots, axe, rope
50-Trap – snare/trap for animal or human
51-Altar/shrine/temple
52-Building under construction: religious, research, military, resource gathering, residential, trade
53-Carving/relief
54-Marker/symbol
55-Boulder
56-Earth/Rock formation: Pinnacle, ridge, canyon, valley, wall, crystal structure, column
57-Fungus/Plant formation:
58-Dungeon entrance
59-Artefact
60-Old Battleground
61-Petrified Object
62-mysterious liquid
63-Remains of Gargantuan: reptile/giant/worm/bird/mammal/dragon
64-Illusion: illusory city, hidden danger, hidden settlement, illusory building, hidden building, hidden treasure
65-Glade
66-Lair: giant, aquatic, swarm, bird, beast, were-creature
67-Well-maintained building: farm, keep, mines, tower, warehouse, fortified garden
68-Subterranean: underground swamp, building in cave, forest, island, settlement, lake/river of magma
69-Magical scar – weather, space, time, nexus of magic power, flora/fauna, arcane explosion
70-Trade Hub: monster's shop, tribal market, smugglers, caravan, merchant's stronghold, magical emporium
71-Creature settlement: monster, planar, fairy, aberration, elemental, dragon
72-Glen
73-Gorge
74-Field of bright flowers
75-Grove of unusual trees
76-Petrified Forest
77-Cove
78-Dikes
79-Depression
80-Dell
81-Rivulet
82-Salt Flat
83-Tarn
84-Wetland
85-Gully
86-Highland
87-Inlet
88-Peninsula
89-Dry Lake
90-Fjord
91-Berries
92-Thicket
93-Sinkhole
94-Fruit Trees
95-Burnt area
96-100 Water

(Edit: since this post is now in the Workshop, I will provide my hexcrawl procedures in supplement form as well).

[Beowulf]

Wow, that's really beautiful!

[feveredmonk]

Wow, that's really beautiful!

I'd love to do something like this in our campaign - there are so many plots that would lead a party to explore a large region and open the campaign up to some fun strategic stuff. You seen any software that allows a GM to roll and place hex terrain on-the-fly?

[Beowulf]

Wow, that's really beautiful!

I'd love to do something like this in our campaign - there are so many plots that would lead a party to explore a large region and open the campaign up to some fun strategic stuff. You seen any software that allows a GM to roll and place hex terrain on-the-fly?

I haven't but I'll keep an eye out!

[Blorpy]

Wow, that's really beautiful!

I'd love to do something like this in our campaign - there are so many plots that would lead a party to explore a large region and open the campaign up to some fun strategic stuff. You seen any software that allows a GM to roll and place hex terrain on-the-fly?

As a matter of fact, the program I used to make this map does have a random generation function. I did not use that for this map, but it seems workable with some modifications.

https://hextml.playest.net/

[Beowulf]

Wow, that's really beautiful!

I'd love to do something like this in our campaign - there are so many plots that would lead a party to explore a large region and open the campaign up to some fun strategic stuff. You seen any software that allows a GM to roll and place hex terrain on-the-fly?

As a matter of fact, the program I used to make this map does have a random generation function. I did not use that for this map, but it seems workable with some modifications.

https://hextml.playest.net/

That's pretty awesome!

[feveredmonk]

Wow, that's really beautiful!

I'd love to do something like this in our campaign - there are so many plots that would lead a party to explore a large region and open the campaign up to some fun strategic stuff. You seen any software that allows a GM to roll and place hex terrain on-the-fly?

As a matter of fact, the program I used to make this map does have a random generation function. I did not use that for this map, but it seems workable with some modifications.

https://hextml.playest.net/

Oh ... interesting. As a GM one could share the screen for online games and use this as the exploration map. Something else to do in my time off during the holidays Thanks.

[Beowulf]

It will be a long break! My local group that plays Old-School Essentials will on break til the first Monday of January as everyone will be out of town. But when we return we're going to switch over to an AD&D 1e game set in the Forgotten Realms. So today I bought the PDF of the boxed set to get up to speed. Maybe given the glut of free time I'll play around with this map program, too.

[feveredmonk]

But when we return we're going to switch over to an AD&D 1e game set in the Forgotten Realms.

Oh ... man, that sounds like fun. I have just about every BECMI book in PDF form, and have often thought about a campaign using those original rulebooks. It'd be fun to have a 4th level Dwarf raging around the dungeon halls

Enjoy the Forgotten Realms. I know it's a favorite setting for folks to bash on, but I've always liked it. The wealth of novels supporting the setting can be fun, too.

[Blorpy]

Oh ... interesting. As a GM one could share the screen for online games and use this as the exploration map. Something else to do in my time off during the holidays Thanks.

Yeah, it’s a neat little tool. Nice and user friendly.

The only reason I don’t use it for screen sharing is because PCs should be able to get lost in the wilderness, which I’m not sure how to represent when they can see where they are on the map. Let me know if you come up with a solution to this!

Merry Xmas!