Let’s Make a Hexcrawl Setting

[Daztur]

Doh! Fixed now.

 

[Sanglorian]

Some great stuff in there - and the Shrouded Lands inspirations are pretty clear at times! (Also some stuff that could be mined to feed back into the Lands).

Do you have an up-to-date DOCX of the hex compilation? I'd be happy to copy-paste some entries over into the wiki, but I don't want to work off the versions in this thread and end up adding out-of-date entries.

 

[Daztur]

Some great stuff in there - and the Shrouded Lands inspirations are pretty clear at times! (Also some stuff that could be mined to feed back into the Lands).

Do you have an up-to-date DOCX of the hex compilation? I'd be happy to copy-paste some entries over into the wiki, but I don't want to work off the versions in this thread and end up adding out-of-date entries.

I've got one that's more up to date than any DOCX I've posted here. However to fit it on google drive I'll have to chop it up into a couple different files. I'll do that tomorrow, have to go to bed now. I'll try to pitch in with the wiki myself ASAP, but I'm hip-deep on some campaign prep work for a play by post En Garde! game (swashbuckling RPG, I think it's the third or fourth oldest published RPG) so it'll be longer than it should be

 

[Sanglorian]

Three subhexes for Jahur.

The Man Whose Shadow is a Tiger

Inspiration: The Book of Tigers, Arnold K (Goblin Punch): http://goblinpunch.blogspot.com.au/2013/11/inventing-tiger.html

A few hunters make names for themselves by hunting big game beyond the World’s Edge. Though giant serpents, hearth beasts and displacer leopards are fearsome foes, the most respected quarry is the King of Cats, the tiger.

So unnatural is it for a tiger to be prey and not predator that the tiger lays a curse upon the one who slays it.

Which curse depends on the breed of tiger. The white tigers of the Imperium - with stripes of red that darken after their first taste of sentient flesh - lay the curse of ash so that all food that their slayer eats has the consistency and taste of ash. The black tigers that were found stalking the ruins of Bergolast - perhaps escapees from an ill-fated menagerie - curse their killers to speak only in a voice just quiet enough that their words cannot be made out.


I could tell you of the stripeless tigers of Zhuriman or the three-headed tigers of Serpantia. In the Devil’s Fingers, lion prides make war with a green-furred, grizzled tiger. Some say even the humble Gorean Grey lays a curse upon its death.

But rarest of all are the orange-red tigers with black stripes. When a person slays one of these tigers, their shadow disappears. Over the next week, their shadow - in the form of a dark tiger - stalks them. Some time on the eighth day, it attacks. Either the hunter slays the shadow or the shadow the hunter.

The shadow leaves footprints on the world. After a hunter kills a tiger, he might dull his fear at a tavern only to find a pawprint birthmark on the tavernkeeper’s face. If he cuts his hand on glass, the blood will drip in stripes down his hand. The wind roars in the trees, where once it rustled. His doom approaches.

A man, haggard and worn, arrived at The Gushing Ruby last night. He has a tiger skin - yet to be cured - rolled up beside him. He casts no shadow.

Hooks

• What happens if a hunter successfully slays his or her shadow?
• What if someone else slays the shadow?
• Do Gorean Greys have a death curse?
• Tell me more about these other breeds of tiger.

The Lampbearing Octoid

An octoid will approach strangers and then lead them on a path through Jahur. The path is never to their intended destination, but the octoid always leads people to a serendipitous meeting, usually in a part of town that they’ve never visited. Perhaps they meet a former lover by the quayside or a man idle comes across a party reading themselves for adventure.

The octoid takes advantage of the lucky encounter to scurry off, its lamp trailing in one tentacle behind it.

Hooks

• What are the octoid’s motives?
• How does it know to arrange these encounters?
• Who owes their marriage to the octoid’s guidance?
• Is there a reliable way of finding or summoning the octoid?

The Varao of the Halflings

Inspiration: The rontay of the Afners, Arnold K (Goblin Punch): http://goblinpunch.blogspot.com.au/2013/10/i-killed-all-humans.html

Perhaps to compensate for their small stature, many halflings - particularly males - ascribe to varao, a loosely defined code of machismo. Halflings project an air of confidence and opinion and refuse to submit to big ‘uns.

At its best, varao inspires its practitioners to protect the vulnerable, keep their word and refuse cowardly compromise. At its worst, it leads to belligerence, sexism and stubbornness.

Valderama Bolger has claimed publicly to be the living embodiment of varao in the Shrouded Lands. He is spending some time in The Gushing Ruby, hoping to form an enterprise that could retake Hurlstone Hill (08.12) for the halfling race.

Hooks

• When Valderama describes himself as the living embodiment of varao, he’s talking metaphorically - right?
• Who would join Valderama on this quest?
• What do halfling women think of varao?
• What would be done with Hurlstone Hill if it were retaken?

 

[Daztur]

Here we finally go, sorry for the delay. The document have been chopped into a couple sections to make it less cumbersome and LOTS AND LOTS AND LOTS of art has been added, nearly every entry has an image.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6z-iUIH4P8aeVBPWFRQQk9zbjQ/edit?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6z-iUIH4P8aLXp4eEJfX1lpejg/edit?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6z-iUIH4P8aYmphUGdVMlpFWjg/edit?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6z-iUIH4P8aVTlhUXhDQ2pCRDg/edit?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6z-iUIH4P8aNXF5aEFvZFU2UHM/edit?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6z-iUIH4P8aTFNwZm5FV0dMaGs/edit?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6z-iUIH4P8aTFNwZm5FV0dMaGs/edit?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6z-iUIH4P8aQjdvU2xyNmZ6OTg/edit?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6z-iUIH4P8aUl9sSjVCcGFvZ2c/edit?usp=sharing

 

[Sanglorian]

Here we finally go, sorry for the delay. The document have been chopped into a couple sections to make it less cumbersome and LOTS AND LOTS AND LOTS of art has been added, nearly every entry has an image.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6z-iUIH4P8aeVBPWFRQQk9zbjQ/edit?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6z-iUIH4P8aLXp4eEJfX1lpejg/edit?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6z-iUIH4P8aYmphUGdVMlpFWjg/edit?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6z-iUIH4P8aVTlhUXhDQ2pCRDg/edit?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6z-iUIH4P8aNXF5aEFvZFU2UHM/edit?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6z-iUIH4P8aTFNwZm5FV0dMaGs/edit?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6z-iUIH4P8aTFNwZm5FV0dMaGs/edit?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6z-iUIH4P8aQjdvU2xyNmZ6OTg/edit?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6z-iUIH4P8aUl9sSjVCcGFvZ2c/edit?usp=sharing

Love it - though you've doubled up on 'F.docx' and are missing 'G.docx'

Three hexes I wrote over a year ago and just rediscovered. Each has been added to the wiki.

The Being of Rime and Hoarfrost (39.30)
Scattered across the floor of this ice cavern are the remains of a mighty elemental. The echoes of the being’s sleepy muttering can still be heard by intruders, and sometimes - with terrific force of will - the being can will part of the snow to take physical form to communicate with intruders; or destroy them.

The being has one ambition, and that is to be warmed so he can turn to steam and ride on the wind.

Connections

• His presence here explains the unseasonal chill in 39.31.

Hooks

• How could you melt such a large elemental?
• What would happen to the cavern if you did?
• How did he come to be smashed up?
• 'He'? Elementals have gender?

Reluctant Temple of Alberon


According to the Reluctant Temple of Alberon, the Time of Schisms broke out because a quiet rural preacher revealled to the high priests of Alberon that the God of Shuttered is a slave to that city.


According to this heterodox teaching, Alberon is a hideous entity from outside this dimension who ruled the City of Many Windows before it was a part of the Shrouded Lands. When the City merged with the Lands, he made plans to conquer the world and subject it to the rule of the Lord of Pain.


But first he demanded total obedience from his citizenry. He made himself a god. The citizens of the City worshipped him through their tears, feeling their heads bow if they were not bowed willingly. Prayers wafted to the Lord of Pain, and achieved his apotheosis.


Whether through deliberate sabotage by some of his freshly-minted priesthood, or the subconscious civic pride of the citizenry, the god-king’s worshippers strongly associated him with the City.


When Alberon mustered his forces, he led the march down the Street of Small Gods on a fiery chariot pulled by burning eagles. But he fell of his chariot as it passed the North Gate.


He was the god of the City of Many Windows, and could not pass beyond its walls. His plans for domination were frustrated. Now, he plots the expansion of Shuttered and hopes one day it will cover the world.


Hooks

• What about Shuttered’s embassies in other nations? Can Alberon manifest within them?
• And how about the embassies in Shuttered?
• How could Alberon slay Tiamat if he is confined to the City?
• How does Alberon’s orthodox priesthood envisage the god’s link to the City?

The Empty Drinkhall


One of the decrees of the Hierophant of Ninbolm is that residents shall not congregate where alcohol is served. To ease this ridiculous requirement, the Indigo Academy created the Empty Drinkhall, which is more of an experience than a location.


Participants sup the purest springwater, but they believe themselves to be drinking alcohol. They make merry with other revellers (and sometimes convincing images summoned up by the illusionists) as they wander through the city.


One benefit of the experience is that the participant awakes the next day totally free from any hangover or other effect of over-indulgence. However, some illusionists recreate the effect of stronger substances or excessive alcohol, leading some revellers to hurt themselves or others.


Illusionists treat the sophisticated phantasms that they apply as if they were cocktails, carefully blending different effects. Each one warns not to mix the ‘cocktail’ of one illusionist with that of another.


Hooks

• What happens if you mix cocktails?
• Why does the Indigo Academy do this?
• Why did the Hierophant ban revelry?
• Are there any actual taverns in Ninbolm?

 

[Daztur]

Here's the G doc. Will try to pitch in with the wiki when I can.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6z-iUIH4P8aNEljRFZ0RkdwNnc/edit?usp=sharing

 

[Sanglorian]

The Ducal Thicket (17.15)

The Mirror Throne (16.16) once stored the soul of Castle Tarengael's most recently deceased ruler so he or she could provide guidance to his or her heir. After the Hell-born spirit consumed the occupant, rulers who died had nowhere for their souls to go. They wandered aimlessly, and most came to rest in this thick scrub overlooking Castle Tarengael and the River of Crystal Waters.

The bugbears raiding Millhaven (17.14) can see the ducal ghosts and delight in chasing them through the thicket. One particularly bold former Duke whispers advice and comforting words in the ears of kidnapped children. He has a vauge plan to use the magical resonance of the mud here to bewitch a bogswine (17.16) and make it 'poison' the bugbears.

Hooks

• Is it possible to consult with the ducal ghosts?
• It says 'most' came to rest here. Are there others scattered elsewhere?
• How can the bugbears threaten the ghosts?
• Do the ghosts know that the bugbears act at the behest of the Sack Man?
• Will the ducal ghost's bogswine plot work? Might he need some help?

Goribald's Heir (17.17)

A memorial to Goribald, the last Champion of Thring (18.17), has been erected in a rare dry patch in this swamp.
It is kept by his squire Jocelyn, a Gorean girl adopted by a Thringish family. She dived into the water after Sir Goribald but was distracted by a sailbeast.

Jocelyn's plan is to find out where the crocodile has passed Goribald's sword and armour and take them. Before an attempt to capture the crocodile is made, she will claim to have slain the beast and qualify as Thring's new champion. She will then fight at the Tourney, lose, and pass the title on to one more deserving and less reptilian than the current champion.

Of course, jousts are dangerous and she knows that her bid to save Thring's honour may cost her her life.

In her darker moments, it has occurred to Jocelyn that the crocodile's midden may also contain Goribald's bones - and the Skinsack Shed (16.18) is nearby. An alternative plan would be to resurrect the knight as a sack child and have him joust in the Tourney as Thring's rightful and returned champion.

Hooks

• Would reviving Sir Goribald be enough to reinstate him as the champion? Or would Thring suddenly have two champions?
• Doesn't the creation of a sack child require the subject to have been killed by black magic? How would Jocelyn get around that?
• Sack children emerge as - well - children. How could a child fight in the Tourney?

 

[Sanglorian]

[h=2]The Larva Formally Known as a Demon Prince (27.05)[/h] If explorers approach this cave they will hear the loud Demonic ranting of a whiskered larva about the size of a dog. This red-and-black banded being, with a droopy hangdog expression, claims to be a demon prince trapped in this form by his peers after they double-crossed him in a coup gone wrong.
Since the Shuttering, he cannot return to his home, where his vassals might be able to reverse the transformation. If told about the Last Window which looks out onto an ashen wasteland, he will become excited and make grand promises to any who will take him there,
[h=3]Hooks[/h]

• Is he truly a demon prince?
• What are his promises? Can he deliver?
• What would be the ramifications of his return?

[h=2]Cowlard’s Convenient Coins (23.11)[/h] A caravan pulls into town and disgorges Cowlard, a merchant with a few tricks up her sleeve.
The most popular are her lightening coins. Such a coin halves the weight of any container in which it is placed, including the container’s contents.
The trick is repeatable, so two such coins reduce the weight to a quarter of the original. Cowlard is always keen to sell the coins in bulk.
However, keen consumers will notice that Cowlard always packages her coins separately, each to its own velvet bag. Dormond of the Crooked Oak suspected that the Sphere of Annihilation (04.31) was created when a misguided client of Cowlard’s placed one too many of her coins in a container.
[h=3]Connections[/h]

• Cowlard is currently in Winds

[h=3]Hooks[/h]

• Does a critical mass of coins truly create a hole in the fabric of reality? Does Cowlard know this?
• How does she create the coins?
• What other knickknacks does she sell?

 

[Sanglorian]

[h=2]Bolgaroth the Schemer (36.05)[/h] Drogo claims to have been pursued through the Kingswood by a monstrous presence as tall as the trees. The diminutive man’s mad sprint carried him only so far before a heavy furred hand clamped on his shoulder.

A head as large as Droog himself lowered to his ear.

‘Establish a Rustler’s Guild.’ ‘What?’ ‘End your small-time enterprise and consolidate.’ ‘Why?’ ‘You will grow great and strong, and all the North will know your name.’ ‘Why are you telling me this?’ ‘Why, only because I care about you and want to see you triumph … darling.’

Bolgaroth is a 15-foot brute rudely exiled by the Shuttering just as the demonic larva was (27.05). His ambitions of being a schemer are frustrated by his size and sinister visage, but that has not stopped him from trying to set elaborate schemes in motion across the North.

It is not clear if Bolgaroth was once able to assume a seductive or inconspicuous form or if he has never been a particularly adroit schemer. One thing everyone agrees on is that they’d prefer him scheming to wrecking havoc in the way one would expect of a 15-foot tall demon.
[h=3]Hooks[/h]

• Is Bolgaroth that clumsy a schemer? After all, Drogo did establish a Rustler’s Guild.
• What do the elves think of these demons in their forest?

[h=2]Snake Oil (29.14)[/h] A travelling huckster called Gaudy Johnson has recently enjoyed a financial and political windfall, and has been appointed by the Doge as head of a Great Family.


It is Shuttered’s smallest Great Family, as Johnson is yet to marry or bear children, but it is a mark of the Doge’s great gratitude.


Gaudy Johnson is a snake oil salesman, which is to say that he somehow extracts the story from a snake and renders it in oil form. There, anyone may anoint their temples and, as they sleep, the book is read to them.


While useful for the busy and the illiterate, it is the blindness of the Doge that makes him so pleased to be able to read books in this manner. He has already devoured Gaudy’s limited selection and has sent him south for more.


Meanwhile, Shuttered’s established Great Families are not keen to witness the rise of an outsider and are making plans to ensure that the first member of the Johnson family is also its last.
[h=3]Hooks[/h]

• Can the Doge announce new Great Families whenever he likes?
• What are the benefits of belonging to or heading a Great Family?
• How does Gaudy extract the oil? Do the lizardmen know of this technique? Does it destroy the snake?
• Is there potential for mistranslations, errors or even deliberate tampering with the text?
• What do the Great Families have planned?

----

Last year I was considering setting up a sci-fi webwork hexcrawl, like the Shrouded Lands. The idea fell by the wayside, but I thought I'd share what I came up with.
[h=2]Sci-Fi Hexcrawl Setting (Kepler-22)[/h] Hi folks,


Matt Slater has a communal project to create a hexcrawl setting for a pulpy sci-fi planet called Kepler-22. I thought it would be fun to claim one of the sector maps and throw it open for anyone on EN World to contribute to.


You can join in! All you need to do is read one or more of the existing contributions and then write an entry of your own that develops or builds on or refers to at least one existing entry. It only needs to be a paragraph; you can make it longer if you like.


By all means include statistics for any RPG you like, but they probably won’t make the final version.


I’d also like all contributions to this thread to be licensed CC BY-SA. That way, we can all use the shared sector we’ve created in our own blogs, settings, books and so on.


There are three types of entry that you can submit:
[h=3]1. A hex entry[/h] The hexes are huge, so you’ll probably only be describing a single person, place or thing that can be found in the hex (bt by all means describe more of the hex if you like). Please state which hex your entry is for - I’ll add a symbol to mark it on the map.
[h=3]2. A random encounter[/h] This is an encounter that could occur in any one of several hexes in the sector. It doesn’t have to be a person or monster - it could be a weather phenomenon or other evetn.
[h=3]3. An imageEdit[/h] This is an artwork (either your own or one that you’ve found that is in the public domain) that either depicts something already in the setting or that would fit well into the setting (in the latter case, other people can use the artwork as inspiration).

---

By all means describe the world in more detail in your hex and encounter entries. For example, if you have a yellow man village in hex XX.XX, you can give details about the yellow man religion, their distant capital city, the history of their race, etc. You can even submit an entry in the form of a story or legend, or a piece of in-character writing from the setting.


Because I’d like this to be Creative Commons licensed, please include the following text in your first submission to the thread:


XX

To kick it off, I’ve written one hex entry and one random encounter, and provided one image.


This is all you need to start contributing - if you’d like more information, or are looking for inspiration, please read the second post in this thread.
[h=3]FAQ[/h]

• Why CC BY-SA?
• What’s a webwork hexcrawl?
• Is there a fantasy equivalent?
• What happened to the rest of the map?
• What will be the end result of this project?
• What’s a ‘hook’?
• What are some hex-related resources?
• Can we have multiple entries per hex?
• What if I want to add detail to the setting in another way?

[h=3]Some images and phrases to put you in the mood (but any style of sci-fi is welcome):[/h]

• Jungle plants
• People of all the colours of the rainbow
• Psychic arts
• Sentient fungus
• Ruined advanced tech
• Space elevator
• Aberrations
• Oozes
• A shallow sea
• Statues of absurd size and scale
• Wizard Scouts
• Sentient dolphins
• Worms
• Crashed spaceships
• Fast travel
• Planetary romance
• Decadent races, primitive races
• Uplifted races (dogs, monkeys, racoons)
• Robots
• Zeppelins
• Victoriana
• Hologram ghosts
• Crazed AIs

[h=2]The Ship Who Screamed[/h] Occasional screeches issue at dawn along this chain of glassy cliffs, echoing through the caves and disturbing great flights of flits and bumbles.


The sounds continue for 5% of the day, and then stop. Their source is an arkship piloted by a sentient computer that miscalculated its landing because of the mirage created by the morning lights reflected through the translucent cliffs.


The passengers of the ship either escaped or perished (the ship is missing all but one of its escape pods; this last has the skeleton and communication device of a single person in it). However, its life support system continues to operate and its onboard farm thrives.


The pilot of this ship is an AI driven mad by damage to her circuitry. She is the source of the screams each morning - an encrypted distress signal - and will attempt to communicate with any intruders.

[h=3]Hooks[/h]

• Where is the ship from?
• Did the crew survive? Where are they now?
• What are flits and bumbles?
• What sorts of animals and plants are still alive on the ship’s farm? Do they have the run of the ship?
• How do glass cliffs form?

[h=2]Flit Mating StormEdit[/h] This builds on the hook 'What are flits and bumbles?'.

Flits are hand-sized, bronze-coloured insects that gather in large swarms to mate. Each flit male releases brightly coloured, pollen-like sperm. The females present spongy patches on their backs - unfertilised eggs that gather and admix the sperm of multiple males for each egg.

The pollen has a number of strange effects on humans and similar lifeforms, depending on the blend of colours ingested. Hallucinations are the most common effect.

Unfertilised flit eggs are a luxury along the Shallow Sea.
[h=3]Hooks[/h]

• What do flits eat and what eats them?
• What are some of the other effects of flit pollen?
• What is the Shallow Sea? What there eats flit eggs?

[h=2]The Shore of the Shallow Sea[/h] This builds on the hook 'What is the Shallow Sea?'.

Most of this vast ocean is a metre deep, or even shallower. Hundreds of luminous jellyfish swim in the currents. If observed from above, the schools of jellyfish seem to spell out words in an alien language.

The enormous grey trees by the shore drop seedpods twice the size of a man. If these fall on the giant clams along the beach they crack open and could be used as coracles.