Random Realm: Final Touches to Base Map

Random Realm: Final Map Touches

I’ve been working on converting a procedurally generated map (created via Dwarf Fortress) into an RPG campaign map. I’m just about ready to start adding actual gaming content to this map and using it to build a small RPG setting. But first, I needed to make some aesthetic improvements to the map.

Step 6: Coasts and Outlines

I used a built-in feature of Worldographer to automatically generate coastlines. Then, using GIMP, I outlined everything first in black, then in white, then finally in a lighter shade of grey.


 

Step 7: Add Rivers and Lakes

At this point, the only features from the original cropped DF map missing on my Worldographer recreation were water features: lakes and rivers. Now, if you look at the prettier map I autogenerated from the DF map, you can see lots and lots of rivers, crisscrossing the land.


 

That’s pretty realistic, but most maps don’t show that level of detail, instead focusing only on major water features. For gaming purposes, I think we can follow this route as well. To find the major water features, we again turn to our original cropped DF map.


Those blue curvy lines inside the continent represent major rivers. The blue ~ symbols are lakes. When drawing in my own rivers and lakes, I tried to keep them to the general areas and shapes presented in that map, but I wasn’t slavishly devoted to their exact placement. I also tried to make my rivers flow as rivers do in real life: downhill. Dwarf Fortress will already have taken that into account, of course, but the exact flow of those ASCII rivers isn’t exactly the most clear thing on that map, and so I had to make some decisions as I went.

 

Here is my map with all water features drawn in and highlighted in white (for greater visibility).

 

 

One final note about this image: The image above involves a lot of small tweaks in GIMP to clean up mistakes, color in tiles that were split between two hex colors, etc. I duplicated the main hex layer and changed the mode to "Multiply". I then darkened it a bit via contrast / brightness. Then I merged that layer down so I could color in the mismatched coastal hexes. I also corrected a problem where the automatic coast generation made some land tiles into water, opening up what should be a closed sea / bay on the west side of the map.

I also added a compass rose.

Up Next

Adding Settlements (and maybe some actual RPG content)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Mutant Crawl Classics inspired patron for DCC: The Star Child

Image
The Mutant Crawl Classics Kickstarter is winding down to its final days. Using the free rules found here , I ran the Free RPG Day Funnel adventure Museum at the End of Time . Inspired by events that are very likely to occur within that adventure (and happened in my home game with the kids), I designed a new patron usable for DCC. Just a little something to tide you all over while you wait for the MCC game to release next year. Feel free to use, share, or whatever. I welcome feedback and would love to know if anyone actually makes use of this thing. PATRON: THE STAR CHILD Somewhere across the infinite realms of time, space, and possibility, there stands the greatest possible achievement of architectural design: a monolithic solid whose perfect and precise dimensions exist in a ratio utterly pleasing to the cosmos itself. Not only are the monolith’s height, width, and depth in perfect harmony with the divine ratio, but so too are its invisible dimensions, on into ...
Read more

Finally, Gen Con Event Luck (Torchbearer RPG)

Image
My oldest son and I are attending Gen Con together this year. It's pretty cool in that it will be the first time I've been in the United States during Gen Con in about 7 years. Without the Army to send me somewhere else during the big convention, I thought it might be neat to take my son. This will be my third Gen Con (I went in 2000 and 2002) and his first. The first year that I went, I barely did anything but wander around the dealer room, bleary-eyed and overwhelmed. My second Gen Con was a little more successful as my friends and I played in the D&D Open Tournament that year. Unfortunately, that event took up most of our available gaming time. This year, my goal was to sign up for a few different events that not only featured my favorite games, but also gave me a chance to game with some of the designers whose work I enjoy. I'm not a fan of gamer celebrities, but I do see the value in having the author of a module running his or her work for you right there at ...
Read more

Wednesday Dwimmermount: A Few Thoughts on Running the Game (Session 1)

A long time ago, I began to cobble together some GM aids that put all of the pertinent rules of ACKS into a 7 or so page document. Don’t get me wrong, ACKS uses OD&D as its base and is hardly a complicated game. The crunchy bits it introduces to that rules set are all things that I enjoy, such as clear mechanics for hiring henchmen and mercenaries. However, the book’s organization is a wee bit scattered, and I found myself flipping around more than I would have liked. Some of that will go away with experience, of course, but I’m now very motivated to finish said GM aid. As a further thought on organization, Dwimmermount has a few warts. Some of the important general information is set aside in its own chapter (doors, wandering monsters, etc.), which is very good for finding what you need during GM prep, but not so good when you’re trying to find something in the heat of the moment. For example, Zazik’s coughing fit was supposed to call for an encounter throw each round that ...
Read more