Random Realm: Trimming the Map

I previously showed how I turned a map generated in Dwarf Fortress into something usable in a tabletop RPG game. At 250,948 square miles, the map that resulted is about 2.6 times the size of the UK, which is too large for a starting campaign. For this portion, I’m going to work on trimming the map down to a more manageable size and making it useful for actual gaming.

Step 4: Trim the Map(s)

Trimming the map is as simple as zooming in on a particular portion and cropping out the rest. Since I used a 24-mile hex scale previously, I can keep things at the same scale here. I’m not resizing things, I’m just cropping. Here’s the cropped map:

I chose this section based on the kind of terrain I thought would make for a fun campaign. I specifically wanted something temperate, with access to mountains, the sea, and not too many deserts. Deserts, to me, suggest a specific kind of campaign that’s different than standard D&D. Not to say that this will necessarily turn into bog-standard D&D, but I’m reasonably confident that I don’t want to run something with a lot of deserts.

 

 

 

Step 5: Convert to a Hex Map

I really like the look of the pretty map that the GIMP plugin created, but I find hex maps more useful on the GM side of the screen. My goal is to ultimately produce two maps: a graphically appealing fantasy map and a useful hex map.

To make a campaign hex map, I’m turning to yet another piece of software: Worldographer. One nice feature of this program is that it lets you drop an existing map onto a background layer to help decide where to place hexes representing the predominate terrain.

For that purpose, the original Dwarf Fortress ASCII map is actually a little more useful, because each of those ASCII symbols roughly translates into a specific type of terrain, which can in turn be represented by a single hex. The DF map, when cropped identically to the prettier map and dropped onto the Trace Underlay layer of Worldographer, looks like this:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After I add hexes for Terrain, the map looks something like this:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next Steps

I’ll need to add more realistic coasts, terrain features like rivers, and make general improvements and tweaks to the campaign hex map.

Random Realm: Initial Map

In a previous post, I mentioned the idea of using Dwarf Fortress to create a more realistic campaign map. As an experiment, I'm going to do exactly that and see how well it works in actual practice.

Now, bear in mind I have no idea how to play Dwarf Fortress. The game has gotten some considerable buzz lately, having just released on Steam after some 20 years of development. My son is a big fan of the game, so he helped me tweak some of the settings I used in this experiment. Here’s the first few steps of how I turned a DF map into a map for a tabletop RPG.

Step 1: Create a Dwarf Fortress Map

Remember, the strength of Dwarf Fortress is that it creates a fairly realistic world, at least so far as taking into account things like river flow, water tables, rainfall, etc. I feel like pretty much anyone with a little bit of knowledge is better at that sort of thing than I am. And a computer is going to be infinitely better yet. While I’m sure Dwarf Fortress is far from perfect, it’s close enough to perfect for my purposes.

However, these maps aren't pretty:

Prior to its Steam Release, Dwarf Fortress has always relied on ASCII graphics. The idea is that the game’s designers used the simple graphics as a placeholder so they could focus on getting the simulation down, rather than worrying about visuals. Later, they’d add in some real graphics, once the engine powering the game was done to their liking. The fact that this took 20 years is beside the point.

Step 2: Making Things Pretty(ish)

While that map might be really useful in a game of Dwarf Fortress, there’s no chance I’m handing a map full of ASCII symbols to a group of players at my D&D game. Fortunately, someone else has already done the legwork of turning a finished DF map into something a little more pleasing to look at, in the form of a free plugin for GIMP. After a little bit of trial and error, I was able to transform the map above into this:

 

Step 3: Applying a Hex Overlay

For all it’s simulation, Dwarf Fortress doesn’t really use a consistent scale for its maps. It doesn’t really need to, as the game doesn’t require realistic scale in order to function. Tabletop RPGs, however, do require some sort of scale, if only to handle things like overland travel. I find hex maps really useful for this, so I’m going to pick an arbitrary scale and drop a hexagon overlay on my map that matches that scale.

To create this map, I followed the steps found here. Note that the size of these hexes is arbitrary. Assuming each hex is 24 miles across, this final map represents about 250,948 square miles. For comparison, the UK is 94,000 square miles, while Europe is 4 million square miles. That puts our setting a little on the small side, realistically, but certainly big enough for many years of adventures.

Bonus

Here's a screencap of the steps I used to create that hex effect in GIMP, just in case the link above ever dies.

Random Realm: Post 0

Over the past few days, I’ve started an experiment to create a small RPG Campaign setting map using Dwarf Fortress, GIMP, and Worldographer. I thought it might be interesting to chronicle the steps I took while doing this, so I dusted off my ancient blog and started posting them here. As to how far I’ll get, or whether I’ll end up doing anything at all with this experiment remains to be seen. For now, I’m going to keep messing around with this campaign setting until I get bored with the idea. As long as I do so, I’ll record the results on this blog.

The Challenge of Creating Realistic Maps

Here’s a thing I suck at: making RPG Maps. Not the drawing or the layout, but trying to make a map that is geographically and scientifically "realistic". At least, realistic enough not to shatter verisimilitude of any player smarter at this sort of thing than I am.

I tend to overthink these things. How do mountains affect rainfall? And what the heck is the “lake effect”? How many miles wide should a peninsula be? I don’t know, I’m afraid I will get it wrong, and it paralyzes me. So I get stuck before I even really start.

My advice to anyone else, and the truth I know in my head, is that none of that really matters. The vast majority of these things I start don’t get seen by anyone but me, anyway. And geography only matters in an RPG game if it's so bad as to be noticeable. In other words, on the way to battle the monsters in the borderlands, a river that flows uphill might, in fact, derail the whole adventure (unless it's on purpose and a wizard did it).

But, crippling perfectionism being what it is, I still look for ways past the hurdle. Something better than just ignoring it.

Real World Maps 

Maps are Key...right?

One way is to use a real world map. With Google Maps or Google Earth, one could just zoom in on a particular region of the world, do a screen capture, apply a hex overlay, and voila! Instant, realistic campaign map.

Supposedly, Greyhawk began as an altered map of the real world. Greyhawk was Chicago, apparently. The Near Dyv is shaped like Lake Superior. The main drawback to this is that I don't necessarily want to create fantasy Maine or whatever. And I'd feel compelled to do so. Why base my map on Germany if I'm not going to incorporate that somehow into the setting? Wouldn't a map based on Texas feel like it should have some sort of gunslingers or the like?

Computer Simulation

Another way around this issue is to use some kind of computer simulation to do the work for you. Dwarf Fortress, for example, is a deeply simulationist computer game (perhaps a ridiculously simulationist computer game) that generates a world map that takes into account things like rainshadow, water flow, and temperature. I don’t know how realistic any of this is. But I do know that Dwarf Fortress is smarter than me at this sort of thing. So I’m going to use it to create a campaign map.

To what end, I'm not sure. But I think I'm going to blog about it a bit. No promises, but it might be fun to make a little setting out of all this and see where it goes.

More Than I Can Chew: Monster Stat Block

I have this terrible habit of starting an RPG project and then going way too far with it. I read somewhere or other that James Spahn, author of The Hero's Journey Fantasy RPG originally set out to do something much smaller than rewrite and entire set of White Box Rules, but got a little carried away.

I can relate.

The problem is, school starts back up in less than a week and my free time is going to greatly diminish. I need to prioritize what to do in the family White Box campaign that I've been talking about on here. I've done more work than I've posted, most of which will find its way here once its in more complete form. I'm not exactly reinventing the wheel, but I am doing more than I actually need to just to run this thing. Here's a little insight into how my thinking goes, and how easily I fall down the rabbit-hole of too much game design.


Monster Stats
Look, I love the simplicity of White Box. On the other hand, I like the way ACKS incorporates things like % in lair and number appearing for each monster. It's a little built-in system where the GM gets to play a bit, too. Trigger a random encounter? What kind of creature? Did the PCs just happen upon a full monster lair, complete with treasure, or was it just a monster out wandering about? In either case, how many creatures are we talking about?

The people who own this have lawyers. I do not

ACKS has all this baked-in to the system. I'd like to have the relevant info in the same place as the monster stats themselves, so why not copy and paste? And, since I'm already combining stat blocks, why not put them in an order I find most useful at the gaming table?

Here's what I've got so far, using the Orrg. Oh, and I changed the spelling again because of something I'd forgotten about from way back in my ever-so-brief time as Magic the Gathering Player (see picture to the right).

I tried to separate this into two parts: stuff I need outside of an encounter and stuff I need during. I'm not sure if I'm sold on having Alignment and CL/XP up at the top, but that's how I'm currently leaning. The reasoning is that I only care about CL when planning or generating an encounter and XP afterwards when I'm awarding experience. Alignment finds its way up there because I generally don't care about alignment during a combat. It might come up, sure, but not as often as Armor Class or Hit Points.

You'll also notice I use treasure types, similar to but not 100% identical to ACKS. I may end up changing the lettering system they use to one of my own creation. The system I use to roll treasure is borrowed from ACKS which, considering the amount of work the authors put into the economics of that game, I'd be a fool to ignore. The actual charts are a little different, however, since my coinage is not the same as ACKS. More on that in a future post. Also, I've added Morale to my stat block, since I really like having the option of rolling randomly to see how my monsters react.

ORRG

% In Lair: 30%

Dungeon Encounter: Gang (2d6) / Lair (1 warband)

Wilderness Encounter: Warband (3d6 gangs) / Village (1d10 warbands)

Treasure: G (per warband)

Alignment: Chaos

Challenge Level/XP: 2/30

Hit Dice: 1

Move: 12

Armor Class: 8 [11]

Attacks: Weapon or natural weapon

Saving Throw: 17+

Special: Fury

Morale: +0

Orrgs are savage humanoids that resemble a cross between men and beasts. Orrgs are broad-shouldered, muscular, and covered with thick, curly hair. Their flat faces resemble a sheep or goat, as do their legs and cloven hooves, but they are otherwise human from the waist up. Most but not all orrgs have horns, usually broad and curled like a ram’s, although some have short straight horns and a few sport deer-like antlers. Creatures of almost pure chaos, the orrgs are a universally violent, bloodthirsty race. They fight to the death, adding a +2 to all attack rolls because of their great fury.

Rumors exist of orrgs who possess far different characteristics than the rest of their race, with bony-plated skin, bear-like muzzles, or even serpentine appendages. Whether these mutants are the elite warriors of the orrg’s chaos-gods, some rare off-shoot of the main race, or merely the bugaboo of some adventurer’s tall tale remains unknown.