Edward Kann posted a map of an area in his Blueholme game he started with his sons. (Check out his G+ profile, he has some serious talent for maps and adventure design.) He has mapped the contents of a 20 mile hex using graph paper for the scale of 1 square per mile. One can debate the changing of scale for accuracy between hexes and squares ad nauseum. Forget that noise. The cool thing is the map key has a section for a TERRAIN KEY with LEVELS for each type of terrain.
My Plan For This.
I like this idea for levels for terrain. I’ll modify that for my own use with a keep, town, or city within so many miles. Say a keep with a 20 mile radius zone of control would negate bad/evil/monstrous encounters. (This is basically the West Marches approach.)
However, wild animals would always be a possibility. Sick or wounded animals would be more likely to attack. Males of most species in mating season would be more likely to attack. Mothers protecting young would be more likely to attack. So lack of monsters does not mean “no danger.”
The deep forest being 3rd level is cool. I’ll add a dark wood more focused on the bad things in the forest. That is, a dark wood would have an encounter table focused on the bad/evil creatures found in forests.
For my purposes, I want a variation for the farms/structures. Have a special set of tables to determine if it is a farm or other structures, their condition – ruins, burnt out/smoldering, etc. And finally if occupied by farmers or otherwise the “correct” occupants or “something else.” Something else could be a hungry monster, goblin raiding party, house or barn fire, etc. A large animal in mating season being belligerent, whether a wild animal or the bull got loose.
This is what I love about the OSR and sharing RPG ideas for any game online. All the different people with their unique take on how they do things spark ideas for how I can use and modify their ideas for my own use.
Hey thanks! This is my first time anyone has bothered to write a blog post about my OSR fantasy stuff and I really appreciate it.
Probably the biggest take away I’ve had with using terrain in a fashion similar to dungeon levels is this… I run an open world campaign where the players can pretty much go anywhere and do anything provided they don’t climb down the wrong hole and get eaten. Pretty early on my sons and their friends figured out that forests, and in particular the deep dark parts of forests were freaking dangerous and hill country could be worse, especially out in the wilds. The players would march out exploring and adventuring, would come to a woods and have LOTS of questions…ok…how big of a woods are we talking about. Does this look like its just a couple of miles of local forest or is this the edge of something larger. What kind of trees do we see…and yes…I have descriptions of trees and plants and include what grows where – so a large forest and a transition into a deeper part of the forest has different sorts of plants and trees to mark the change. My son’s might decide…ok…this woods looks mostly safe so we will try going through it…after all there are twelve of us what is our hirelings OR they might say….are you CRAZY! There is no way we are going into THAT. We ride around. Someday…they will be high enough level to -not- ride around and therein lies the fun of making the world seem like a place for real adventures to happen.
You’re welcome! When I find something online that I like and think others might like, I at least comment and share. If my comment gets me writing more than a few lines, I know it rates as a blog article.
I too have an open world, and this is another way to make it come alive. Not sure why I didn’t think of this in conjunction with distance from civilization, but it makes a lot of sense.