(OK
this looks fucking stupid but maybe
it isn’t.)
So
doing a procedural-generation Vornheim style map for the Underdark is fucking
insane. It’s a little like wilderness (you can go anywhere potentially), a bit
like a desert (not may people around, alien environment, always running out of
resources) and like a dungeon (movement severely constricted locally.)
So
on the macro scale you can go anywhere, I the immediate sense you can only go
to a few specific places.
But
you could maybe find a way anywhere, if you looked hard enough.
Blah
blah blah
So
the idea is of a cave-bearing substrate.
First,
take a clean A4 sheet. Roll up a complex from the experimental
generator. Write the complex rules in the top.
“The
Torrenting Torment of He Who Seeks,
always exposes the tracks of those who passed
last
but
never hides the innocent or lets the guilty flee.”
Next
you need a number of directions between 3 and 5. Right now it’s a d3+2, which is
awkward. We will assume four directions for this map. Put little arrows or
signs so that the directions cross each other, are reasonably evenly (but not
exactly) spaced and are not parallel. Now our map looks like this.
Now
in real use you wouldn’t see those arrows. They are just there to indicate the
directions you chose.
Now
we go through each direction in turn and again generate a number for each one.
In this case we will postulate 3, 4, 5 and 3 again. Then we draw that many swift
freehand pencil lines across the page in that way. Like this;
There
are three lines in the first direction. Now we do the other directions.
So
now we have a blank page divided into some semi-random semi-regular shapes.
Each of these shapes is a section.
One
thing we need to do is decide which direction this map is facing. I will add a
compass.
Now
we begin mapping caves. A cave is just a blob right now. (I may give it more
complex glyphs later on.) We start the first cave anywhere on the edge of the
map, but probably on the top. I will draw this one in green.
We
can do this with the Cave
Generator. This tells us how many exits and entries it has and where.
Now
an important rule comes into play.
Every
section with a cave must have one section next to it that cannot have caves.
Simply, if you have a cave in a section, one section touching it must be
coloured in. You cannot place caves there, you cannot pass through it. It can
be touching edge to edge or at the sides.
So,
depending on how big a section is, we may have multiple caves in it, or only
one. While you are still in a section,
all the caves in there are considered to be closely related, they can be
explored in ‘real time’.
When
a cave passage leave a section, it really matters how it leaves. If the passage leaves across a line, that means those caves are on the same level, at a similar
height.
I’ve
labelled that as 1 in the map.
If
a passage leaves a section across its
join, that is across the pointy bit, that means that passage is strongly vertical. It may be an easily manageable
chimney or simply a passage at a strong angle but it goes up and down more than it goes across.
I
have labelled that as 2
Now
we continue to fill in the rest of the Torrenting Torment of He Who Seeks.
Remember the rule about un-navigable spaces.
Ok
I got bored doing that but you get the idea.
Obviously
this looks really shit but it is meant to be done by someone really really
quickly with a pencil in about 20 seconds.
Why
the dark spaces?
Fuck,
I can’t even remember my reasoning but it was good. I think.. it’s important that
there be places you can’t go? Where caves can’t be and could never be? So you
can’t just race around the map, you have to find your way a bit.
And
you can’t race anyway because the caves will only generate in certain
configurations.
Rivers
could move through the grey spaces. If there was a river on the map you would
just draw it through after the substrate was added. If a grey space pope up,
the PC’s can’t follow it. If it goes over a line that’s maybe a sump, if it
hits a diagonal then a waterfall?
And
if they can get breath under water and anti-cold spells and underwater lights
maybe then they could reach those areas?
The
lines crossing diagonal joins should have arrow on them to remind the DM if
they go up or down. In case the players come back.
(There was more but its late and I'm tired.)
Competing idea:
ReplyDeleteroll 3d6s for directions, interpret as hours on a clock (1 thru 6).
roll d4+1 for each direction - do that many freehand lines, evenly distributed.
Else as above.
Pro:
+ quicker to grasp
+ more random than distributing directions freely
Con
- more standardized feel