Scale

Over a decade ago I wrote a post about using Heroic/Homeric/Bronze Age/Mycenaean Greece as a setting for Barbarians of Lemuria.  Well, I was thinking about Ancient Greece again this morning and I got to wondering how big a map hex map of equivalent size would be.  If you total up the area of the Peloponnese, Attica, Boeotia and Euboea it comes out to around 11,340 sq/m¹.  If you put that in terms of a 6 mile hex map, that is an 18x18 hex map!  That's not a large map compared to some hexcrawls and sandboxes.  Someone, I'm not quite sure who, also did a 6 mile hex map of Greece, the Aegean and Western Turkey.  The entire map is 99x81 hexes.  Smaller if you shave off some of the sea hexes on the western and southern edges of the map.

There is soooo much history and mythology crammed into this area that it boggles my mind.  It could be a giant playground for a game.  A GM could take just a portion of it, such as one of the four areas I mentioned above, because it's still crammed with potential.

In Classical times this area contained Athens and Sparta and the consequences of their rivalry and machinations.  There was also the important cities of Corinth and Thebes to round out the four biggies.  Olympia and its games were located there.  Many battles were fought in this area and much diplomacy was conducted.  If you go back to the Bronze Age/Mythological era you can add so much more.  Mycenae, Argos, Pylos and Megara.  Many of the mythical beasts roamed its wilds, too.

This changes my perspective on how big a map has to be to be effective.  I've always liked the idea of Chicagowiz's "Just Three Hexes" campaign starter and this, in a way, reinforces that.

¹ All numbers are approximate and for demonstration purposes only

Outdoor Survival, Tolkien Style

 John Salway mentioned in a post that it would be interesting to see the Outdoor Survival map done in the style of a Middle Earth Tolkien map.  I did some poking around and it turns out that Ray Otus has created one.  Ray Otus is the author of one of my favorite RPG related blog posts, 1937 Hobbit as a Setting, and the nifty little game that resulted, There and Back Again.  His post and game inspired me to start muddling around with my Hobbit inspired setting.

Anyway, Gary Gygax suggested using the game board/map from Outdoor Survival be used in conjunction with the original version of D&D.  So it has a long connection with RPGs.  Ray posted the map and wrote about how he created it here.  And this is what he came up with:

 

Perilous Shores Hexcrawl Campaign

It's been quite a while since I've written anything here.  But there's always something going on in my head.  (Be afraid.  Be very afraid!)  Here's one of the things I've been pondering.

I've mentioned the online map generator Perilous Shores before.  It is a really useful tool then and I really like it.  Well, it keeps getting better.  Watabou, it's creator, keeps adding features that improve it and make it more flexible.  He also has several different generators including a village generator, a city generator and a one page dungeon generator.  All of which have options to customize and/or modify the output.

One of the really cool improvements to Perilous Shores is that Watabou connected the other generators to the map maker.  So, if you want to instantly create a village that is on the map, you right click the village and you have the option to have the village generator create it.  The same for adventure sites and the One Page Dungeon generator.

This got me to thinking.  If you wanted to create a hexcrawl but were feeling lazy you could use the generators to get a head start.  In fact, if you combine it with other generators for NPCs and monsters you could create an entire hexcrawl pretty quickly.

Here's a short example:

This is the bare-bone beginnings for the Island of Storms hexcrawl using Watabou's generators.

First, I generate a map.  I'm going to make this a small map just for sake of example.

This entire map was created by the map maker, including names.  I did modify it.  As generated, it had a city but no adventure sites.  Being a small, isolated island, I didn't want it to have a city so I deleted it, leaving only the village of Crimson Gate.  I also added the two adventure sites so there would be places for characters to explore.  This is all menu driven so it's simple to do.

Next I created a players map.  I would only do this if I wanted the players to know the geography of the area.  The generator makes it easy to modify the map to hide the adventure sites and other features.

Second, I'll create the map of the village.

Then on to the adventure sites.

The information is automatically generated with the dungeon.  And it can be formatted in a couple of different ways.  This is just the default style.  However, if you want complete control over stocking the dungeon or want to use a different generator you can hide the descriptions and just have numbers.

Now the second dungeon.

The integration of the generators isn't perfect as you can tell by the description of the Haunted Vault.  It does not lie in the bend of a river.

It took me about ten minutes to put all of this together.  Now, I'll need to come up with some NPCs, stock the dungeons, create a wandering monster table for the island and I'm set to go.  Or as I mentioned, find generators to do this for me.  They are out there.

Hexfriend

I don't know if I've mentioned Hexfriend yet.  My favorite mapping program at this point is Hex Kit.  It's a downloadable program that is simple to use and has a bunch of tile sets that you can use to make different style maps.

A map made with Hexfriend

However, if you can't afford the price of a paid program or only have access to a computer that won't run downloaded programs there is Hexfriend.  Hexfriend is my favorite online mapping program.  It is simple to use.  It allows you to create classic looking hex maps, download the source file so you can work on it again later and export the final product as a PNG for printing or distributing to your players electronically.

It has several features that somewhat surprised me for an online program.  Besides being able to choose the size of the map, you can choose whether to have a classic rectangular map or a hexflower style map.  You can have the hexes either flat top or pointed.  Coordinates on or off and one of four styles.  The tiles and icons are reminiscent of the classic TSR maps of yore.  And, theoretically, you can import your own tiles and icons.  I know there is at least one set for sale on DriveThru.

One downside to it is that there isn't layering other than the automatic layering between terrain, icons, rivers/roads and text.  Also, the icons are fairly limited.  On the upside, the icons are scalable in size.

But, if you want any easy online mapping program you might like Hexfriend.  You can find it here.

https://hexfriend.net/

Hexgen

Mr. Raston over at the Lizard Man Diary Blog created an interesting little hex crawl.  What caught my interest is that he used an online map generator called Hexgen to create the map.  I always like map generators.  I haven't played with it much so I don't really know its capabilites.  The image is a randomly generated map without any modifications.  You can find it here:  Hexgen.

Perilous Shores

I'm always on the lookout for a good online map generator.  I loved the now sadly defunct Wizardawn and it's map creators.  I particularly liked the area generator that would produce a regional map with terrain, points of interest and, if you wanted, populated dungeons.  Now that it is gone I have been looking for a replacement.  I have found one that is pretty cool though it doesn't have quite as many features as the Wizardawn generated maps.  Despite that I like it a lot.

It is called Perilous Shores and it is free to use on itch.io.  It will create a random map with named towns, natural features and adventure sites. Once the map is generated you can modify the way it looks, add hexes to it, change tones, change the name of the towns and features and other miscellaneous things.

Here is a map as generated and then as modified by me.  You'll notice that there are some differences.  Changing some of the defaults will change the map.

More Hex Kit Fun

A month or so ago I picked up a bundle that had the Hex Kit program bundled with all of the official tile sets that Cone of Negativity sells for less than the price it would've costed me to buy the tile sets that I didn't have individually.  Which was cool.  I got some funky color sets I like and a space set I haven't messed with yet.

I also ran across a third party tile set called "Classic Hex Map Tileset".  I was rather stoked about it because this set hearkened back to a more classic style of map that I associate (rightly or wrongly) with the '80s.  As you can see from the quick sample map I created it is clean and simple.  It also takes advantage of Hex Kit's flattop orientation, which most of the sets don't

I really like this set but the one downside is that it doesn't come with provisions for rivers or roads.  I find that disappointing.  Now I can dip into the other tile sets and use the rivers and roads from those but since they weren't created specifically for this set it can be a little more difficult to work with and the results can be a little more awkward looking.

But overall, I really like this set.

Hex Kit Again

I've been fooling around with Hex Kit some more.  It has hex numbering and a labeling feature.  It also has a feature that if you hover the cursor over a hex the notes that you've added will pop up in a box.  For example, if you hover over The Keep of the Wolf King it will display, "The mountain fastness of the Wolf King.  He uses the keep as a base to raid the surrounding countryside."

Hex Kit also has a "fog of war" feature that allows you to hide hexes if you want to provide a map for your players.  If I were starting my players on this example map I could give them this version to reflect their limited knowledge of the landscape.  Clicking on the maps give you a better idea what they look like.

I'm rather enjoying this still.  It could definitely meet my simple needs.

Hex Kit

Bundle of Holding has the mapping program Hex Kit in one of their bundles right now.  Ignoring everything else in the bundle it's going for about 2/3 of its regular price right now.  So I grabbed it.  It's an interesting little program, easy to use.  It comes with a basic black and white tile set and there are other color set you can purchase separately.  Here's my first 5 minute effort.