What is Heroes & Other Worlds?

Heroes & Other Worlds is a game of adventure inspired by Metagaming's classic Melee/Wizard/TFT system combined with inspiration from the Moldvay edited basic game. The rules are easy to learn and use standard six sided dice. The system is simple, sensible and flexible in the spirit of classic role playing games from the early 80's. Become a Hero, Other Worlds await!

Sunday, December 15, 2013

Kismet? Mini Campaign

I stumbled across a series of recent posts at Aeons & Augauries regarding mini-campaigns.  This process works up and populates 60 hexes. 

This is an interesting primer and should give you an idea of what the Pack Full of Peril project could generate and turn into.

Keep your ideas, concerns and suggestions coming!
Posted by at

13 comments:

  1. ewookieDecember 15, 2013 at 6:38 PM

    hey, that's cool. i've done something very similar to that before but i was using squares instead of hexes. that's probably the best way to populate a map.

    i've seen another method here: http://www.welshpiper.com/hex-based-campaign-design-part-1/
    really like it for a small-scale map. would be extremely tedious for anything large.

    as far as megahex terrain tiles go, there are 7 hexes - each of which have 5-7 possibilities (depends on how many terrain types you are considering). this means there are 7^7 different megahex terrain tiles possible. if your calculator isn't handy, that's 823,543 possibilities. rules like 'desert can't touch forest, swamp, or water' and 'swamp can't touch desert or mountains' will weed a lot of those possibilities out. i think it would be generous to say that it cuts the possibilities in half to yield somewhere around 42,000 possibilities. Yikes!

    I've come up with something i like that generates megahex terrain tiles using patterns. i'll post shortly.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. ewookieDecember 15, 2013 at 6:54 PM

      first, decide what types of terrain you want and assign to the results of a 1d6 roll. here's the table i'm working with: 1d6: [1]swamp [2]flatland (open terrain) [3]flatland [4]forest [5]forest [6]mountain

      roll for terrain type. then roll for a pattern on this chart:
      http://i39.tinypic.com/73f0xd.jpg

      fill in the shaded areas with your primary terrain.

      repeat this 2-step process 2 more times but rotate the pattern until it fills the most of the remaining hexes. do not change/overwrite hexes that are already filled. if there are still any unfilled hexes after doing this 3 times, fill them with your 'default' terrain type (most likely open-terrain/flatlands/countryside)

      i hope this makes sense. i don't know how else to explain without doing some sort of whiteboard presentation.

      Delete
    2. ewookieDecember 15, 2013 at 6:55 PM

      ^ crap! the 'pattern roll' is a 2d6 roll

      Delete
  2. Fenway5December 15, 2013 at 7:21 PM

    This is great Adam, really inspiring stuff! Can't wait ti delve into this further.

    ReplyDelete
  3. ewookieDecember 15, 2013 at 9:41 PM

    how set are you on using the megahex format? the more i play with it, the more it seems too small to be very interesting or worthwhile. what do you think about 'pocket lands'?
    [IMG]http://i44.tinypic.com/2em2wrm.png[/IMG]
    pocket lands and perils...yum, yum. gives everyone more room to be creative

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. ewookieDecember 15, 2013 at 9:47 PM

      ^ 3-6 points of interest with that image...or use a super? megahex - 5-hex diameter

      each little region fits on an index card and happily matches the Pockets of Peril...

      Delete
    2. ewookieDecember 15, 2013 at 10:03 PM

      better image...
      http://i39.tinypic.com/ieo29j.png

      Delete
    3. ewookieDecember 15, 2013 at 10:07 PM

      ...and the whole card/image doesn't have to be used...

      Delete
  4. ewookieDecember 16, 2013 at 8:21 AM

    hmm. i need more direction. how much space should each hex cover? or how long should it take adventurers to traverse 1-hex? one day? one hour? one quarter-day segment?

    (i like to divide each day into quarter-day segments that are slightly different than LAW's.
    Morning, Mid-day, Afternoon, Evening, Night. Each of the quarter-day segments are 4hrs long, so "daytime" is 16hrs long running from 6-ish AM to 10-ish PM. Night is 8hrs long.)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. ewookieDecember 16, 2013 at 3:08 PM

      i take it back. i found my direction and can't seem to stop scribbling notes - using just one megahex. i'm letting each hex represent 50mi (10hrs/1day to cross) with one encounter check every quarter-day segment (4hrs) and one at night (8hrs).

      Delete
    2. ewookieDecember 16, 2013 at 5:43 PM

      at first i was astonished at how much material one megahex inspired me to generate. now i'm overwhelmed. i have enough ideas for random encounters and points of interest to make something like Barbarian Prince...II and III...crap.

      Delete
  5. Fenway5December 16, 2013 at 8:32 AM

    Hi Adam! Thanks for your enthusiasm to get this rolling! I am neck deep in finishing Raedwald so I won;t be able to give full scope to this until I am done. So hang in there, I just have to get one very important project done before delving fully into a new one! Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  6. ewookieDecember 16, 2013 at 9:13 AM

    :) sorry. didn't mean to rush/pressure you. i understand. i do get carried away with enthusiasm sometimes, which tends to rub people the wrong way. :) you have handled me very well! thanks!

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)