Creating Hex in an Hexcrawl - Two (and a half) Methods

PREFACE

I created this post and tried to publish it. It had a bug in the layout. I tried to fix it and it literally deleted half the content for no reason (and at random also). I don't yet understand what actually happened. Since there is no versioning in Blogger, I'm still aren't sure what I had written where and so on. If there seems to be missing material, I am sorry. I will try to fix it as I see it. Also, everything I had to re-write is of course barebone and very short. I hope you can still catch and understand the main points of every steps and methods.

INTRODUCTION

People sometimes ask how to create content for hexes. Someone from /tg/osrg asked recently and I said I was going to provide with some content.

In this blogpost I will provide three methods I use to have content for my campaign(s).
The first one is easy and stupid, so let's get it out of the way: stealing. Open up an old module, check out blogpost (such as mine) and steal content. Saw a dungeon you like ? Plug it in your campaign world and make something out of the entrance, etc.

The second method is with tables. You could use old book tables and they are great. I created my own because it suited better my own workflow. I will present those here. I will not deal with any other table methods, but I suggest you look up others, especially old DMGs.

The third method is with a more "narrative" approach (and I don't mean narrative RPG) using Magic the Gathering cards.

I will explain both method two and three.

If you have trouble writing text description, there are some random generator tools out there, or you can create subtables like https://www.reddit.com/r/BehindTheTables/wiki/index.

TABLE CREATION

I have six steps that I follow through for each hex. Sometimes, at the end, I will remove some of the data I created. Sometimes I will add. In any cases, the goal is to make sure you go through a certain process and then create links between every data that the tables will produce to create something both unique and relevant.

My overall philosophy is this: every hex must provide either character advancement (XP, treasure, etc.), player engagement (challenge, puzzle, resource management, etc.), campaign background (lore, exploration, etc.) and a possible return/engagement (that is, choice and consequence from the agency of the player upon the world). If I cannot provide any of these, than the hex is a waste of both my player's time and my own. Also, I am a very front-end content creator. I prefer to have more written beforehand than improvise everything on the spot. Therefore, I never create hex with shallow description like "There is a huge tree in the middle of a hill. A tribe of 30 owls live in it." The reason is that it neither suits my front-end creation nor my four criteria.

Of course, the first thing is to determine the region, the worldmap, etc. Here I am only dealing with putting content in an already existing hex.

These are the six steps: 

1. Determine structure of the hex
2. Determine natural feature
3. Determine landmark (optional)
4. Determine encounter (optional)
5. Determine random encounter
6. Determine other details (rumors, stronghold encounter, dungeons and lairs)

1) Determine structure of the hex

In this step, I consider hexes as dungeon room (ish). I roll a d20 to determine what's in it. This step is super arbitrary and I made no calculation for it. It was just matter of randomizing what's in the hexes.

• 1-10: Natural feature, encounter
• 1-13: Natural feature, two encounters
• 14-19: Natural feature, landmark and encounter
• 20: Natural feature, event from another source*

* Generally, I use old Judge's Guild stuff, like the "Book of Ruins", or random ideas I thought about or gathered outside the context of any specific hex. Everytime I have a random good idea, I put it in a list. Then when I roll that 20, I go get one of those cool ideas.

2) Determine natural feature

Natural feature are in all hexes, as they represent the description and the terrain. This is to make sure that I can tell my players something other than just: "it's the same damn trees as every other hexes around". You can mix and match, roll multiple times if needed and so on. It's a tool. There is five base generation to do: 

• Elevation feature
• Water feature
• Passage feature
• Vegetation feature
• Plant feature

Elevation feature d8

Roll 1d8. If you have a very hilly/mountaineous area (or it's beside one), you could roll multiple and make sense of it

• 1: Nothing, flatland
• 2: Connected to an adjacent hex (for example, a forest hex that gets this result beside a mountain hex would have a steep incline as you get nearer the mountain)
• 3: Going up
• 4: Going down
• 5: Some sharp cliffs
• 6: A chasm
• 7: A peak
• 8: A mountain with a cavern

Water feature d6

Roll 1d6 (2d6 keep lowest if its more desertic). This is to determine what's the attractive feature in terms of water on this hex. If you already have a river going through it, then it's settle: just describe the effect of the river on the terrain (multiple stream going to it ? waterfall if you have cliffs ? etc.). As I said, the goal is to go through everything and making more and more link in order to create an organic whole at the end. 

• 1: Scorched
• 2: Nothing of interest, no real water point
• 3: Ponds or swamps
• 4: Streams
• 5: River
• 6: Lake

Passage feature d6

Roll 1d6. This is optional. It's use to determine if there is any old passage, trail, road, etc. Because of the landmark or major road already on your world map, this might be superseded. 

• 1-2: Nothing
• 3: Trail in the wood
• 4: Humanoid path
• 5: Previous/unused/ancient road
• 6: Road

Vegetation feature

Roll 1d12. Same as water. As per your hex or whatever you have in mind. If you have no clue, then you can use this. Also, you can subdivide your hex. You could have a hilly plain with a small forest up north that's impassable, blocking the access to the north from this hex.

• 1: None
• 2: Scorched
• 3-4: Plain, clear
• 5-10: Normal, as per adjacent hex
• 11: Dense
• 12: Unaturally dense, almost impossible to walk through

Plant feature

Particular plants at particular places, or when players search for them. This is hand-in-hand with the vegetation: you populate your landmark or natural feature with a particular and/or magical plant. For example, a majestic and rare tree on top of a cliff, etc. You roll 2d6 to determine the plant, and 1d8 for a special feature (optional).

As far as description goes, you can look up on the internet and/or just invent your own thing. Personally I like to describe stuff as it was written in Greek, Latin and Medieval manuscript, legends, stories or myths. Makes for a vibrant use of plants and they all have an effect. For example:

• Peredixion tree: The peridexion tree grows in the East. Doves gather in the tree because they like the sweet fruit, and because there they are safe from the dragon. The dragon hates the doves and would harm them if it could, but it fears the shadow of the peridexion tree and stays on the unshaded side of it. The doves that stay in the shadow are safe, but any who leave it are caught and eaten by the dragon. The wood is more effective against dragon-type. Destroying a peridexion tree is an act against the rigtheous gods and is badly seen. Nobody would buy such woods.
• Blueleaf: Durable tree with gleaming blue leaves native to humid temperate and subarctic latitudes. Reaches 40 ft height, rarely develops thick trunks, bends rather than breaks under wind/snow and tends to grow in thick strands. Sap and crushed leaves yield vivid blue dye, burnt wood creates leaping blue flames. It's wood can be magically treated to be as hard as steel (requires 10 days and 10 ranks in craft alchemy or woodworking) and then fashioned into armor, counting as Masterwork and providing a half-weight benefit. Costs range from 300 gp to 1200 gp.
• Algae Adamtantine: Rare algae that grows in water gathered around adamantine. Produces dark red liquid that doubles natural healing rate for 24 hours (requires 1 ounce per 100 lb of body weight). Typical pool contains 32 ounces of the liquid, which becomes useless 30 minutes after removal from the pool unless stored in an adamantine vial (200 gp), which makes it last for 1 month. Adamant Algae die within 1 our after removal from their pool.
• Mulo: Very rare and magical plant. It is very poisonous but can give a huge protection against magic for as long as it circulates in one's blood.

3) Landmark

To determine a landmark, there is three main rolls to make, and then you roll for the particular kind of landmark. Main rolls:

• What does it contain
• Terrain feature
• Accessibility

Optional roll, depending on the feature:

• Ruins origin and Ruins type
• Natural
• Magical
• Unnatural
• Elemental/Fey

What does it contain

This is kind of a modified roll for dungeon rooms. It's to give an idea of what to put in there and will help build on the other rolls. Roll 1d20:

• 1-11: Nothing of note
• 12: Puzzle/challenge with treasure
• 13: Tricks with treasure
• 14: Trapped treasure
• 15: Guarded treasure
• 16: Unguarded treasure
• 17-19: Dungeon
• 20: Megadungeon

Feature d8

This is to determine what kind of terrain it is that represents the actual "landmark". Roll d8.

• 1: Obstacle
• 2: Ruins
• 3: Fey Circle
• 4: Magical Landmark
• 5: Natural Landmark
• 6: Unatural Landmark
• 7: Lair (roll a monster)
• 8: City/camp rubbles

Accessibility d12

This is to determine how the PCs can reach (if they can) the Landmark, or how difficult it is to reach it by normal means. Roll 1d12

• 1: Inacessible, supernatural (force field, etc.)
• 2: Difficult to access by natural means (top of a pillar/cliff)
• 3: Down a chasm/up a mountain
• 4: Bottom of a cavern/lake/volcano
• 5: Middle of a mountain/lake/razed city
• 6-10: Normally accessible (forest, hill, swamp)
• 11-12: Easily accessible (beside a road, on top of a hill within a plain, etc.)

Ruins

First determine the origins (this is just an example from my own setting):

• 01-29: Arthurian ruins (castles, guard towers, exterior court, stonehedge type spiritual things, etc. influence: classic fantasy medieval european art)
• 30-49: Flaith ruins (byzantine architecture, greco-roman temple with animal/celtic influence, hyperborean architecture, etc. influence: Vsevolod Ivanov)
• 50-69: Magus ruins (roman building, Petra, pillars, columns, aqueduct, etc. influence: Theros stuff from MTG)
• 70-89: Qantari ruins (Macchu Picchu style, aquatic temple/city, etc. influence: Ixalan stuff from MTG)
• 90-00: Phyrexian ruins (machine, industry, dark and metallic, etc. influence: old Phyrexian stuff from MTG)

Then the type of ruin: 

• 1: Tower
• 2: Holy Temple
• 3: Unholy Temple
• 4: Tomb/crypt
• 5: Monolith
• 6: Keep/palace
• 7: Aqueduc/Wall/Dam
• 8: Pile of rubble from one of the other result (reroll)

Then you can determine in what condition it is according to the civilization, the threat around, the rest of what you rolled, etc.

Natural/Magical/Unnatural/Fey

4) Encounters

Encounters here are pre-keyed encounters. They will generally lead to something but most of the time, they will be "one-of". You can reroll those on some hexes after some game exploring, to keep players on edge that stuff keeps happening in the world with or without them.

To do an encounter, first roll on the type of encounter (d20), then determine the zone where it takes place (d4). Afterwards, you can roll details for each of the type of encounter.

Type d20:

• 1: Magical encounter
• 2: Underwater encounter
• 3: Psionic encounter
• 4 - 9: NPC encounter
• 10 - 18: Monster
• 19 - 20: Puzzle/challenge with treasure

Place d4:

• 1: Roadside
• 2: Ruins/keep/rubble
• 3: Near the natural feature
• 4: Camp (either an abandonned one, during the night or when the player leave their camp at morning)

Magical

• 1: Magical fallout
• 2: Ether Cyclone
• 3-5: Astral Encounter
• 6-9: Feywild Incursion on the land
• 10: Cursed Shrine
• 11: Magical Shrine
• 12: Zone (like in Stalker) with an artefact from which magical energies twist the land

Effect of the magical encounter (keyword tool to help flesh it out):

• 1: Catastrophic
• 2: Against PCs, detrimental
• 3: Confusion
• 4: Ambush/surprise
• 5: Against other NPC/humanoid type (past or present)
• 6: Against other monsters

Water

• 1: Unexplained water is gone
• 2: House/Building in middle of water (under or over it)
• 3-5: Hidden swamp monster
• 6-9: River/Stream monster
• 10: Building or huge structure underwater
• 11: Treasure underwater
• 12: Magical/Calming lake/stream/river

Psionic encounter

• 1: Psychic wind
• 2: Mindcontrolled NPC/Monster party
• 3-5: Low HD psionic
• 6-9: High HD psionic
• 10: Neutral/friendly psionic
• 11: Astral stuff
• 12: Dream stuff

I'll be honest, this list is bland. If anybody have better ideas for Psionic encounter, send them my way.

Effect of the magical encounter (keyword tool to help flesh it out):

• 1: Catastrophic
• 2: Against PCs, detrimental
• 3: Confusion
• 4: Ambush/surprise
• 5: Against other NPC/humanoid type (past or present)
• 6: Against other monster

Monsters(ish) d12

First choose type of monster(ish) encounter.

• 1: Primitives/humanoids
• 2: Mutants/neutrals
• 3 - 4: Mage Lord (stronghold encounter)
• 5 - 6: War Lord (stronghold encounter)
• 7 - 8: NPC
• 9 - 10: Group of NPC
• 11 - 12: Allied NPC

Then roll/choose your monster as per the region encounter or whatever you have as a Monster Manual. Then roll what is needed in the next few rolls.

NPC type d10:

• 1: Blackguard
• 2: Anti-cleric
• 3: Paladin/Cleric
• 4: Knight
• 5: Wizard
• 6: Ranger
• 7: Hunter
• 8: Fighter
• 9: Merchant
• 10: Bard

Doing what d8:

• 1: Camp
• 2: Doing his job (whatever it is according to its archetype)
• 3: Hunting/foraging
• 4: Eating, relaxing
• 5: Sleeping
• 6: Tending to fallen/wounded
• 7: Dicovering something (link to landmark/natural feature)
• 8: In a fight against... (reroll monster encounter)

Monster type d12:

• 1: Unique monster
• 2: Adjacent hex
• 3 - 7: Low HD patrol
• 8 - 9: High HD patrol
• 10: Dead
• 11: Friendly/neutral
• 12: Fauna with a twist (high number, bigger, under the control of a NPC, etc.)

Then determine what they are doing:

• 1: Ambushing
• 2: Roaming
• 3: Hunting
• 4: Eating/resting
• 5: Fleeing (reroll encounter to determine what)
• 6: Fighting (can be someone else from its own group, or another monster: check my reaction rules for more information)

Special twist (optional) d4:

• 1: Nothing
• 2: Wounded
• 3: Scarred by ...
• 4: Mutated

5) Determine random encounter

As per my other blogpost of my hexes, I use a very simple system that I reproduce in every hex/regions with minimal modifications. I roll d6 + d20. The d6 determine what kind of encounter, and d20 the type. You can see more of my general rules for Hexcrawl in here.

TABLE 1d6 (1 = encounter, 2-3 = omen (traces, camps, bodies, etc.))

• 1 - 5: Common regional creature
• 6 - 9: Low hd regional creature
• 10 - 11: High hd regional creature
• 12 - 13: Creatures linked with the hex or with an important adjacent hex
• 14 - 15: Local or regional NPC (can be neutral or against the PCs)
• 16: Ambush-type
• 17: Rare monster/NPC
• 18: Special encounter (roll 1d6 to determine the type: 1 - earth (earthquake, landslide, sinkhole, quicksand, etc.), 2 - magical (portal, magical storm, etc.), 3 - psionic, 4 - fire (vegetation fire, meteor, firestorm, heatwave, etc.), 5 - air (gas, hurricane, smog, mist, etc.), 6 - water (drought, flood, etc.))
• 19: Recurring NPC
• 20: Dragon

This one is the one I use for my newer hex. It might diverge a bit from the one you see in the other hex description I wrote because those are older hexes.

6) Others

If you have rolled a lair, dungeon, or megadungeon, that's where you need to actually key it. Same for puzzle or anything else. I will deal here with two other factors: rumors and stronghold encounter.

Rumors

I try to follow the "three clue rule" whenever I can, because it gives better foreshadowing and information to my players. For hexes, especially with important features (such as landmarks, ruins, dungeons, important encounters, etc.), I try to have clues layed around for where you can find it, or at least, what's in there.

You can lay clue while traveling, for example the party seeing X, Y, Z (bodies, dark clouds, peak of something, etc.) while traveling to the hex. They can find map on bodies, letter on a skeleton, and so on.

You can also lay clues through the Haven (a map is found, a rumor, a bounty, an archeologist asking the party for something, etc.) or NPCs traveling and giving out information (I like this one).

Stronghold Encounters

Regarding keep and stronghold encounters, I suggest this: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-mQOfssFK9baFd6Z0JLTnRmVkE/view

First you determine the type, according to the archetype (Magic-User or Fighting-Man) 1d6:


Then the stronghold:

• 1: Tower
• 2: Tower /w outer wall
• 3: Great keep
• 4: Keep with towered wall
• 5: Keep with towered wall and outer wall
• 6: Full keep (as above) with moat and guardpost outsides

Then the guards. Template : F-M/M-U. 1d6 - 2 for Law, + 2 for Chaos. 

• 1: Champions/Ents
• 2: Griffon Riders/Hypogriff Riders
• 3: Myrmidon/Gargoyles
• 4: Swashbucklers/Heroes
• 5: Ogres/Lycanthropes
• 6: Giants/Balrog

F-M will ask for a tax, jousting or both (depending on the alignement and reaction roll). If the joust is won, he might give:

• 1: Gold (HD x d100 + 100)
• 2: Weapon of choice from personal armory
• 3: A follower
• 4: Something out of the treasury (generally magical)

If it's a M-U, he will send the party on a geas. Roll 1d20 for the type of quest and 1d8 for the reward (if it's difficult, roll twice on the table)

Conclusion of Encounters

Encounters roll seem to be sparse and not give a lot of data. But it's because generally, its the easiest to generate and even improvise, notably because it involves things with agency and so on. That being said, it's interesting to roll everything and, again, create links with other features of the hex. That way, you can create more "organic" encounters and give better motivation to NPC/monsters/etc. and make the world feel more alive.

MAGIC THE GATHERING HEX CREATION

For this method, influenced by others you can find on the web or on the excellent blog of The Alexandrian, you'll need a bunch of MTG cards. Ideally, prefilter them by theme according to your setting. Then, you will create seven piles:

Then you pick randomly in every pile one card, and you create links. The basic land is there to help you determine what kind of vegetation and natural feature. The locale is to "set" the rest, i.e. a landmark. The problem determine what the player will most likely feel or see. The complication can be used as a trick or just a straight-up problem to be solved to get to the main problem, or it can determine the problem itself. Antagonist can be linked or not with the problem. Helper is optional, but it can help create more value and content. Loot is optional too.

The most difficult part about this method is not to create links between the card and general content, but actually going through hundreds (or thousands, depending on your collection) of MTG cards to determine if this particular card fit your setting, and if so, under which category does it fall to.

• Setting: Basic lands, one subpile for each region you have (for example, forest for forest-type regions, etc.)
• Locale: Non-basic/area
• Problem: Enchantment/Sorcery/Creature
• Complication: Enchantment/Sorcery
• Antagonist: Creature
• Helper: Creature/Enchantment/Sorcery
• Loot: Artefact (some enchantment might be suitable)

Here is an example of an hex made with this method:

• Forest setting. I picked an old Odyssey forest. Very cool looking. Lots of pine trees, broken branches, very dark. The height of the trees might seem very high, 80' for some, and you can barely see light filtered through the trees, giving off a very greenish vibe everywhere.
• The forest is infested by giant insects that seems to come from other adjacent hexes. I know this because I rolled a giant insect monster as problem. But I also rolled an Aether Grid as a Locale: therefore my Aether Grid is having an adverse effect on the insects of the forest.
• The Aether Grid itself in the center of the hex is home to a group of fanatical cultists that pray to the machine-demon.
• I rolled a mutant-elf card. Since I don't have elf in my setting, I interpreted them as being mutated picts (one of my humanoid group, akin to ranger and haflings) that try to defend the forest from the cultist but are now overrun by the insects since the reactivation of the machine Aether Grid.
• In the Aether Grid itself, if players can manage to force their way in, there is a small dungeon with a giant metallic wurm (I picked the Wurmcoil Engine card) as a guardian in the inside chambers.
• The loot is an ancient powerful artefact used to make fire and generate light (card: Fireforger's Puzzleknot)

It's quite simple really. You can pick and choose if you prefer. Or you can just discard some of the cards.

CONCLUSION

Those are the methods I use to create hexes. The diversity of result is perfect for two reasons: not all hexes are going to be either all boring or all exciting, no two hexes will (or should) end up being the same. If it does happen, either work on it to create an in-world reason and make it cool, or disregard what you just rolled and make another one.

I hope those methods can help people make their hexcrawl campaign. If you have other ideas or method, please put them in the comments.