A First Skeleton

So how does one begin to make a world?

I’ve found Kevin Crawford‘s random tables to be full of inspiration. Every one of his books gives me hundreds of ideas. To be perfectly honest I could just grab one of his books and make a world from that – but none of his creations quite scratches the itch I have. I’m aiming for a science-fantasy world, something where the magic became, essentially, technology but then it all went wrong in some “man-made” apocalypse (ala. the God-Wars from the Craft Series).

So I’m starting with the “region creation” from An Echo Resounding – …terrain of varying types in a square region 200 miles to a side… That sounds like a nice area. Something about the size of Ireland. Of course, I have no idea what the terrain should be like, and Mr Crawford isn’t much help here either, so I turned to the Welsh Piper’s map creation…

d12 Result	Adjacent Hex Terrain [1]
1-6	Primary
7-9	Secondary
10-11	Tertiary
12	Wildcard

HEX ->	Water	Swamp	Desert	Plains	Forest	Hills	Mountains
Water	P	W	W	W	W	W	–
Swamp	W	P	–	W	W	–	–
Desert	W	–	P	W	–	W	W
Plains	S	S	T	P	S	T	–
Forest	T	T	–	S	P	W	T
Hills	W	–	S	T	T	P	S
Mountains	–	–	W	–	W	S	P

This gave me my map!

Basically the steps I took were:

• Pick a starting hex terrain (plains)
• Go to a blank nearby hex, roll a d12, which gives you a Primary, Secondary, Tertiary, or Wildcard result.
• Check a table which lists the terrain variations based on the neighbouring hex
• Repeat for the next hex.

That gave me a bunch of “atlas hexes” filled with rough terrain types. Going from the old standard of 6miles/hex – that gives me an atlas hex of 30 miles – and my whole region is now a tad over 200 miles a side.
The great thing about the table of hex variations is that the changes between hexes feel more gradual/believable. I’m using the hexkit which is an amazing tool. Originally I made the map using the “fantasyland” set of hexes – but I found it looked a little too heavy. Beautiful but it felt disconnected… So I tried another set – Zeshio’s pixel hex – which also includes some lovely transition hexes, and is much lighter on the eye. The resulting map looked much more interesting.

Sweet

Now I looked back at Mr Crawford’s instructions in An Echo Resounding for populating the region.

• Put a city down somewhere likely.
• Put 4 towns scattered about.
• Put 5 ruins down.
• Place lairs along the obvious routes between settlements.

So far I’ve been using tools that are based in “fantasy”. But I wanted to add a little sci-fi/post-apoc to the mix, so I broke out Other Dust also by Mr Crawford, and rolled up some details about the locations. Also using An Echo Resounding to get the Lair details.

• (B3) Thorn Forest Ruins
  Origin: Prison
  Destruction: Madness
  Inhabitants: Degenerates
  Tags: Underground Site, Sealed Horror
• (C2) Spire City
  Government: Caste-Based
  Core: Starport
  Tech: TL4 – amazing technical expertise
  Tags: Functioning Industry, Nobility
• (C4) Lair – Cruel Vowed (evil Paladins?)
• (C6) Lair – Cursed Earth
• (D4) Forest Ruin
  Origin: Ruined Village
  Destruction: Panic
  Inhabitants: Raiders
  Tags: Failed Community, Radioactive
• (D6) Valley Ruin
  Origin: Sinister Caves
  Destruction: Disease
  Inhabitants: Cultists, Robots
  Tags: Berserk Robots, Rich Tomb
• (D8) Edge Enclave
  Government: Theocratic
  Core: Academic Facility
  Tech: T3 – oasis of advanced tech
  Tags: Psychic Masters, Educated.
• (E1) Swampland Ruins
  Origin: Secret Laboratory
  Destruction: Disaster
  Inhabitants: Exiles
  Tags: Flooded Ruins, Psychic Stronghold
• (E2) Lair – Vicious Humanoids
• (E5) Mountain Enclave
  Government: Democratic
  Core: Remote Resort
  Tech: T1 Medieval
  Tags: Educated, Robots
• (F2) Cliffside Enclave
  Government: Tribal
  Core: Beached Tanker or Crashed Starship
  Tech: T1 medieval
  Tags: Food Supply, Cruel Tribute
• (F5) Lair – Demon Infestation
• (F7) Lair -Cursed Earth
• (F9) Desert Ruin
  Origin: Mandate Base
  Destruction: Madness
  Inhabitants: Beasts
  Tags: Cyclical threat, Radioactive
• (G4) Lair – Magic Gate
• (G5) Mesa Enclave
  Government: Oligarchy (Families)
  Core: Post-Cataclysm refuge built by survivors
  Tech: T2 – firearms and steam power
  Tags: Sanctuary, Supremacists
• (H6) City Ruins
  Origin: Industrial Complex
  Destruction: Nukes
  Inhabitants: Cultists, Degenerates, Robots, Raiders (At war!)
  Tags: Ancient Lore, Unstable Power Core

Already from these random entries, I can see a host of possibilities, as well as a bunch of modules that would slot right in with only a little modifications.

Next up – going into more detail and creating a 6-mile hexcrawl (or at least getting started!)