Post by onethatwas on Apr 21, 2014 7:45:14 GMT
Not sure where to post this, since it's not *technically* crafting (Read: No Glue Guns were harmed in the making of this post), but I had a moment of inspiration the other day while I was doodling world maps (I tend to make alot of maps that don't see much use, but it's very soothing to do so). I was toying with a new idea to make an incredibly simplified map that joined undescribed settlements (Represented by 1 cm circles) and undescribed Adventure Sites (Triangles of a matching scale) with dotted lines (Ala Indiana Jones Travel Montage).
No geographical features, country borders, or even for that matter terrain borders (ie coastlines). I was going for a really simple feel, where the map's details are generated in play, on the fly, making the world a total unknown outside of the borders of whatever small town the Players begin in ("You meet in a Tavern, over a mug of ale, traveling to or from distant lands..." That sort of thing). Generally this isn't the modus operandi for how I handle adventures, but boredom has led me to do some strange experiments in regards to Tabletop RP...I have more tables made at this point than I know what to do with, some which are really obscure.
Anyway, back to the point. As I made this mock-up map (Really easy to make....as I described, draw about 12 circles on a page to represent settlements, roughly the same number of Triangles to represent adventure sites, and then draw dotted lines to represent paths between them, with, generally speaking, 1 triangle between each settlement), I had to ask:
-What kind of settlements are these?
-What kind of adventure sites are these?
-Who (Or what) inhabits these?
-How could I determine these things on the fly?
So I then thought of my ungodly collection of Magic Cards that I have been eyeing lately for sale on eBay. And I thought, "Hey, those cards have some things that could be used as tools"
SO, I have devised a system in which I make two "Decks": A Deck composed of Land Cards (Plains, Forests, Mountains, Swamps, Islands), and a Deck composed of creatures (Common Cards of a given creature type).
So when the Players say they want to leave town to go to <insert area drawn on the map here>, I draw 3 Land Cards, and 3 Creature cards, from their respective Decks.
-Land 1 represents the Geography of the Adventure Site or Settlement, as follows:
Plains, Forest, Mountain, Swamp, or Coastal (Island). Note that Island's could also represent Rivers and Lakes of significance (Lake Eerie or The Nile, for Instance)
-Land 2 represents the TYPE of Adventure Site or Settlement, as follows:
--White (Plains): Ruins (Adventure Site)/Standard Settlement
--Green (Forest): Wilderness (Adventure Site)/Frontier Town (Settlement)
--Red (Mountain): Natural Cavern system (Adventure Site)/Fortified City or Fortress (Settlement)
--Black (Swamp): Crypt or Catacombs (Adventure Site)/Industrial or Slum city (Settlement)
--Blue (Island): Remote Coastal site or Aquatic Location (Adventure Site)/Merchant or Port city (Settlement)
-Land 3 represents the type of Governance for Settlements, and also describes a notable Building (Which could also be a feature for an Adventure Site for clever GM's). As Follows:
--White (Plains): Theocracy (Temple or Altar to the Gods)
--Green (Forest): Elected Council (Tavern or Secluded Woodland House)
--Red (Mountain): Monarchy (Castle or Treasure Hoard)
--Black (Swamp): Crime Syndicate/Guild (Shady Locations or Graves/Sarcophagi)
--Blue (Island): Magocracy (Mage Tower or Wizards Laboratory)
The Creature Deck merely determines what Races/creatures inhabit the dungeon. This can be composed of common races to your setting, or could be monstrous creatures. If you use the Deck to determine what sorts of monsters appear in the dungeon/Adventure site, obviously you are not exactly following D&D or Pathfinder Cannon and may have to develop stats for these creatures.
I generally would Draw 3 Cards (Again) and ignore/redraw if I came across an incompatible race or creature. Say for instance I drew three cards for a Settlement, and got An Elf, a Dwarf, and a Zombie. Well, the Zombie doesn't fit...discard and redraw. Great, I got Goblins. Now I have to determine how this settlement manages to have Elves, Dwarves, and Goblins/Orcs together in the same place in a logical way. Could be interesting.
Similarly, mayhap you don't want Elves as foes....discard the Elf, redraw, and get a Giant instead, and you have a dungeon location that is filled with Dwarves (Probably Duegar) Giants, and zombies. Not sure how that makes much sense, but you can try to make sense of it.
So, using this, I have been playing around with the draws and have come up with some interesting maps and mixes of shtuff. Obviously if something doesn't fit, do something else instead (Use your own discretion and judgement), but for a first step this can make for some good on the fly adventuring...
Hope someone finds this useful.
No geographical features, country borders, or even for that matter terrain borders (ie coastlines). I was going for a really simple feel, where the map's details are generated in play, on the fly, making the world a total unknown outside of the borders of whatever small town the Players begin in ("You meet in a Tavern, over a mug of ale, traveling to or from distant lands..." That sort of thing). Generally this isn't the modus operandi for how I handle adventures, but boredom has led me to do some strange experiments in regards to Tabletop RP...I have more tables made at this point than I know what to do with, some which are really obscure.
Anyway, back to the point. As I made this mock-up map (Really easy to make....as I described, draw about 12 circles on a page to represent settlements, roughly the same number of Triangles to represent adventure sites, and then draw dotted lines to represent paths between them, with, generally speaking, 1 triangle between each settlement), I had to ask:
-What kind of settlements are these?
-What kind of adventure sites are these?
-Who (Or what) inhabits these?
-How could I determine these things on the fly?
So I then thought of my ungodly collection of Magic Cards that I have been eyeing lately for sale on eBay. And I thought, "Hey, those cards have some things that could be used as tools"
SO, I have devised a system in which I make two "Decks": A Deck composed of Land Cards (Plains, Forests, Mountains, Swamps, Islands), and a Deck composed of creatures (Common Cards of a given creature type).
So when the Players say they want to leave town to go to <insert area drawn on the map here>, I draw 3 Land Cards, and 3 Creature cards, from their respective Decks.
-Land 1 represents the Geography of the Adventure Site or Settlement, as follows:
Plains, Forest, Mountain, Swamp, or Coastal (Island). Note that Island's could also represent Rivers and Lakes of significance (Lake Eerie or The Nile, for Instance)
-Land 2 represents the TYPE of Adventure Site or Settlement, as follows:
--White (Plains): Ruins (Adventure Site)/Standard Settlement
--Green (Forest): Wilderness (Adventure Site)/Frontier Town (Settlement)
--Red (Mountain): Natural Cavern system (Adventure Site)/Fortified City or Fortress (Settlement)
--Black (Swamp): Crypt or Catacombs (Adventure Site)/Industrial or Slum city (Settlement)
--Blue (Island): Remote Coastal site or Aquatic Location (Adventure Site)/Merchant or Port city (Settlement)
-Land 3 represents the type of Governance for Settlements, and also describes a notable Building (Which could also be a feature for an Adventure Site for clever GM's). As Follows:
--White (Plains): Theocracy (Temple or Altar to the Gods)
--Green (Forest): Elected Council (Tavern or Secluded Woodland House)
--Red (Mountain): Monarchy (Castle or Treasure Hoard)
--Black (Swamp): Crime Syndicate/Guild (Shady Locations or Graves/Sarcophagi)
--Blue (Island): Magocracy (Mage Tower or Wizards Laboratory)
The Creature Deck merely determines what Races/creatures inhabit the dungeon. This can be composed of common races to your setting, or could be monstrous creatures. If you use the Deck to determine what sorts of monsters appear in the dungeon/Adventure site, obviously you are not exactly following D&D or Pathfinder Cannon and may have to develop stats for these creatures.
I generally would Draw 3 Cards (Again) and ignore/redraw if I came across an incompatible race or creature. Say for instance I drew three cards for a Settlement, and got An Elf, a Dwarf, and a Zombie. Well, the Zombie doesn't fit...discard and redraw. Great, I got Goblins. Now I have to determine how this settlement manages to have Elves, Dwarves, and Goblins/Orcs together in the same place in a logical way. Could be interesting.
Similarly, mayhap you don't want Elves as foes....discard the Elf, redraw, and get a Giant instead, and you have a dungeon location that is filled with Dwarves (Probably Duegar) Giants, and zombies. Not sure how that makes much sense, but you can try to make sense of it.
So, using this, I have been playing around with the draws and have come up with some interesting maps and mixes of shtuff. Obviously if something doesn't fit, do something else instead (Use your own discretion and judgement), but for a first step this can make for some good on the fly adventuring...
Hope someone finds this useful.