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Pen & Paper Roleplaying Central => Pen and Paper Roleplaying Games (RPGs) Discussion => Topic started by: danskmacabre on August 10, 2022, 11:05:57 PM

Title: OSR/Hexcrawl wilderness, dungeons, towns etc generators?
Post by: danskmacabre on August 10, 2022, 11:05:57 PM
So a question for the OSR/Hexcrawl gamers.

I've been playing around with OSE (Old School essentials) and there is some basic guidance in there for Generating Wildernesses, Dungeons, Towns and so on.
I've plenty of Encounter charts, treasure charts in those core books, but looking for more detailed Hexcrawl friendly material for generating Terrains, dungeons exploring and so on.

I guess some Judges guild stuff would be good. Any specific suggestions out there ?
Title: Re: OSR/Hexcrawl wilderness, dungeons, towns etc generators?
Post by: Naburimannu on August 11, 2022, 06:56:13 AM
There are lots of good free resources online. Among posters here, Rob Conley has a well-regarded series of a dozen or more blogposts (https://batintheattic.blogspot.com/2009/08/how-to-make-fantasy-sandbox.html), and Melan had a nice short "you don't need much complexity" argument last fall (https://beyondfomalhaut.blogspot.com/2021/11/blog-hex-crawls-simple-guide.html). http://kellri.blogspot.com/ has "CDD#4 - ENCOUNTERS" which starts off as a set of random encounter tables but then has a rather full random-hex-stocking guide stretching over a hundred pages, e.g. the Ruins table: architecture, condition, structures, contents, treasure. Graves & Tombs table: conditions, guardians, age, burial type, burial chambers, grave goods, tomb treasures...

If you're looking for *products*:

* From Judges' Guild, the Ready Ref Sheets.
* Alex Macris (Autarch; also posts here) is the author behind ACKS, and wrote the Lairs & Encounters supplement, which addresses one or two specific aspects.
* Todd Leback (Third Kingdom Games) wrote "Into the Wild" and "Filling in the Blanks"; the latter is a rather complicated high-verisimilitude system for building hexcrawls, where IIRC you can end up with each six-mile hex having its own custom random encounter table based on which monsters have lairs in other hexes nearby...
Title: Re: OSR/Hexcrawl wilderness, dungeons, towns etc generators?
Post by: Eric Diaz on August 11, 2022, 10:11:46 AM
My Dark Fantasy Places is PWYW.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/288289/Dark-Fantasy-Places

It's a short collection of generators for villages, towns, and wilderness... I should make one for dungeons...


Title: Re: OSR/Hexcrawl wilderness, dungeons, towns etc generators?
Post by: danskmacabre on August 12, 2022, 03:26:14 AM
Nice, thanks for the links. I'll check them out
Title: Re: OSR/Hexcrawl wilderness, dungeons, towns etc generators?
Post by: VacuumJockey on August 18, 2022, 08:44:39 AM
A little late - but check out https://pendicepaper.com/hexroll-intro/

This damn thing will do all the work for you!
Title: Re: OSR/Hexcrawl wilderness, dungeons, towns etc generators?
Post by: estar on August 18, 2022, 11:47:01 AM
Quote from: danskmacabre on August 10, 2022, 11:05:57 PM
I guess some Judges guild stuff would be good. Any specific suggestions out there ?
How to make a Fantasy Sandbox
http://batintheattic.blogspot.com/2009/08/how-to-make-fantasy-sandbox.html

Random Human Village
https://batintheattic.blogspot.com/2009/06/sandbox-fantasy-random-human-village.html
Title: Re: OSR/Hexcrawl wilderness, dungeons, towns etc generators?
Post by: dkabq on August 18, 2022, 11:58:44 AM
I use Todd Leback (Third Kingdom Games) "Filling in the Blanks" for my DCC campaign. As was pointed it, it can get complex, but you don't have to follow it as gospel. When I use it to populate hexes for my PCs to hex-crawl, use it to generate information that I then bend, fold, spindle, and mutilate as I see fit.
Title: Re: OSR/Hexcrawl wilderness, dungeons, towns etc generators?
Post by: briansommers on September 12, 2022, 03:05:31 PM
I was hoping somebody would mention this.
It's really brilliant!
Title: Re: OSR/Hexcrawl wilderness, dungeons, towns etc generators?
Post by: Cathode Ray on September 12, 2022, 05:02:40 PM
Here are a bunch of free tools:
https://donjon.bin.sh
Title: Re: OSR/Hexcrawl wilderness, dungeons, towns etc generators?
Post by: weirdguy564 on September 13, 2022, 05:41:26 PM
Donjon is the one I use.
Title: Re: OSR/Hexcrawl wilderness, dungeons, towns etc generators?
Post by: Lee on September 13, 2022, 08:49:46 PM
There are some system-agnostic tables in the 3e version of Wilderlands of High Fantasy that I like to use.
Title: Re: OSR/Hexcrawl wilderness, dungeons, towns etc generators?
Post by: Angry Goblin on September 14, 2022, 06:12:44 AM
Very interesting topic, thanks, I haven´t done hexcrawls for a really long time, maybe it´s
finally time to hop on it again! Great links and articles btw. 8)