A meandering journey into the world of fantasy.
This entire region is dominated by the Spire. Not only does it literally tower over everything here, but all thoughts are directed towards it - either how to get in, how to stay in, or how to destroy it. The great tower is a city in and of itself. I loved the results I was … Continue reading In the Shadow of the Spire.
I was totally looking forward to rolling up encounters for this region. A mountaintop community based on survivors at a resort, a monster infested forest surrounding it. But, what else is around? Lets see what the RNG gods give us this time around D4Atlas Forest RuinsRuined fortress inhabited by raiders(?) With some kind of dangerous … Continue reading The Central Massif
Back into the Shatter, but this northern section was concerning me. I didn't see a whole lot of interesting possibilities looking at the Atlas Map. But, once again the Random Gods proved me wrong. At first I was rolling poorly, and nothing was coming up, but one strange combination made me re-evaluate this area totally! … Continue reading The Northern Shatter
This area caused trouble for me. I really couldn't wrap my head around a desert so close to hot/wet swamplands... then some of the lovely people on the OSR discord explained to me about rain shadows, and "a wizard did it". Which changed my perception of the whole Broken Lands. The low/wet Drained Sea, surrounded … Continue reading The Wastelands
So now i'm moving into an area that looked interesting. Still making the "random setting" with the technique I outlined here I admit that I already had some ideas of what I wanted this place to look like going into this stage. When I was making the atlas map, this area was mountains and hills … Continue reading The Southern Shatter
With the last region - The Drained Sea - I ended up with a tangled swampland - not a whole lot of room for ruins. More like a tangle of living things out for your blood. This time I want something more classically post-apocalyptic. Hence - The Rust Plains. I don't know how much time … Continue reading The Rust Plains
So I was thinking about what has made setting that I've loved gaming in. A post that covered a lot of the same territory is from "OSR aesthetics of ruin". I do indeed love the idea of exploring something ruined. Not knowing what it was, and having no instructions about it. Possibly why some post-apocalyptic … Continue reading The Drained Sea
So how do I go from the "Atlas" map of large hexes into a more detailed hexcrawl map which the players can travel through on a day-to-day basis... and how to put some interesting things for them to encounter? Thankfully, Welsh Piper has us covered once again - with some information on filling out the … Continue reading Adding flesh to bones.
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 … Continue reading A First Skeleton
So I've been lamenting my current lack of creativity - new baby, stuck at home a lot, and all that jazz. This lack of outlet has all my creative juices bubbling away in my head, and I've decided to do something about it. Creating from nothing is always difficult. I've found it easier to give … Continue reading Welcome to the Broken Lands.
Wandering Wombat 