Random "table" with an inbuilt memory ... (sort of)

[GHench]

I might use the Hex Flower. I wouldn't apply it to all table needs though. For example, I couldn't quite see how, on the rot grub table, the grub was in the bladder one minute and in the brain the next (unless the victim was a man).

The Rot Grub Hex Flower is just a bit of fun. But, the idea is that the result is the final destination

I'd be interested to see what you cook up on the random dungeon front.

 

[Blue]

The other utility here - and this one's far more interesting to me - is that from any particular hex you can only go to 6 other hexes, further reinforcing the "trend" idea: what's happening now somewhat determines the options for what happens next. One real-world example where this is the case is weather, and I could see using something like this to generate a trending-randomized weather matrix for somewhere in a game world. EDIT TO ADD: The one change I'd make in general would be to add a 7th option: the status quo, where you stay in the same hex. This could be done using his 2d6 model by saying that if you roll doubles other than double 1 or double 6 you stay put.

The weather one would be interesting if we changed the direction of the trend by season. If Down/Up had hotter/colder trends, and left/right had drier/wetter (or snow for the cold+wet).

So starting near the bottom (as that's where you will end the cycle, spring trends RIGHT down (wet but getting warmer) summer trends DOWN left (more heat, somewhat drier), autumn LEFT up and winter UP right.

 

[Lanefan]

The weather one would be interesting if we changed the direction of the trend by season. If Down/Up had hotter/colder trends, and left/right had drier/wetter (or snow for the cold+wet).

So starting near the bottom (as that's where you will end the cycle, spring trends RIGHT down (wet but getting warmer) summer trends DOWN left (more heat, somewhat drier), autumn LEFT up and winter UP right.

This might need a slightly bigger flower - i.e. with more landing points - to pull off well, but I think you've found an excellent way to combine two of the three potential hex flowers (basic condition and temperature) it'd take to do weather up right. Still need something else to handle wind, but that's no problem.

 

[Ratskinner]

I like the concept overall.

Seems easy to do on a grid, use two Fate dice one for each dimension.

 

[GHench]

Never really understood Fate dice …

 

[Satyrn]

@Lanefan directed me to this thread after I mentioned making wandering monster tables tied to a dungeon's randomly determined "daily status." I could see using this to determine daily status, except that most of the time I'm just essentially picking the starting location and don't need to track it over time.

However, I Just realized how this could work to track some things once the status has been determined. When the players enter Goblin Territory and the current status is "Orcs are invading" a hexflower could determine the orcs' progress. It seems to me like "orcs win" would be at the top with "orcs driven out" at the bottom.

What would be the starting square? Since the players would be entering the territory while the invasion was underway, it'll work perfectly fine if I randomly pick one of the hexes (other than the win/lose spots), but what if the players are there when the invasion begins?

Edit: The Goblin Territory comprises 5 zones (plus homebase), and I'm picturing each hex in the flower listing which zones the orcs currently hold. Hexes near the top would have the orcs holding more zones, close to goblin homebase, while near the bottom would have the orcs holding fewer zones, or even none.

 

[GHench]

Interesting idea.

I wonder if you could have a set of conditions in the hex, starting from from unresolved type outcomes, escalating to victory condition at the top. Have a token for goblins and one for orcs, and it’s a race to the top (to win).

I need not be a fair race, with for example the better army have points to spent to alter direction, or simply starting higher up the hex. There might even be a ‘peaceful’ outcome if both tokens land on ‘consider settlement talks’ etc.

Thanks for the comment

 

[Ratskinner]

Never really understood Fate dice …

Curious, they aren't that complex.

Individually, its just a d6 with 1&2 = "-1", 3&4 = "0", and 5&6 = "+1".

Fate and Fudge roll 4 of them at a time and sum. This gives a pretty good bell curve from -4 to +4 with most results around 0.

You add the result of the roll to your skill level.

Now, if you mean more of a philosophical understanding, that's a bit more subtle and a matter of taste, IMO. Generally, it puts a big emphasis on your skill modifier (a +1 is a big deal in this system.) There are variant preferences even within Fate (d6-d6 being very popular).

 

[TBeholder]

So, it's a visual support for easy 2D random walk. Cool.
Though with single step only it's just a less-messy form of navigable graph.

For example, in the below random outdoor terrain generator I made, Plains are favoured (bottom of the Hex Flower) over other terrain (e.g. Woods and Hills) and Mountains are quite disfavoured (top of the Hex Fowler). Also, the way this set up, you can’t go from plain to mountains without first passing through hills. Therefore, while it is randomness, there is also a sense of continuity.
View attachment 102795

As mentioned in the comments above, you could have a weather Hex Flower that progress from mild weather to severe weather, passing through intermediate states. Also, due to probability structure, and the continuity limitations, you can ensure that severe weather is rarer than mild weather.

The one change I'd make in general would be to add a 7th option: the status quo, where you stay in the same hex. This could be done using his 2d6 model by saying that if you roll doubles other than double 1 or double 6 you stay put.

Yes.
So the obvious modifications:
* A simple way is to just with some probability "not walk", indeed.
** It's good for cases when drift back toward some equilibrium value is desirable, as all tweaks can be combined in the 2nd roll: not just "walk 1 cell/don't walk", but "walk 1 cell/move 1 step toward (X,Y), then walk 1 cell/move 1 step toward (X,Y)/don't move".
* Another is to walk in a random direction using more than 1 roll per step, to have a distribution pulling toward the current node.
** It will naturally happen if we walk in (1d6) direction e.g. 2 times on each step (with a result map that doesn't mind moving that many nodes per step, of course), because it forms a bell curve profile where "back and forth" is the most probable outcome:
On the example map, walking twice gives R=0 (S): 1x 6/36, R=1 (H F F/P P A/P A): 6x 2/36, R=1.5 (H F P P A H): 6x 2/36, R=2 (M F/H F/P P A/P A/H): 6x 1/36
Since dice values are constant vectors, it's just 2d6, order doesn't matter.

Simpler "always walk a step" methods ostensibly allow solitary features (results that should not be lumped too closely, like "oasis" or "rain of frogs"). But then the same result would have high probability of appearing again with 1 result in between (by walking 1 node away, then 1 node back).
Thus it would be better to generate rare and very rare results on the second pass, in context of already set results of the first pass (so that "oasis" appears only in the table for desert, and "rain of frogs" only on the table for irregular precipitations), perhaps via rolling separately on the tables for each.

The weather one would be interesting if we changed the direction of the trend by season.

Using this sort of a random walked map? Shape it as a ring (big grid with blocked center) and mark a continuous loop of cells with sequential dates. Then use one of the "walk + drift" methods, but move the mark to which the value "gravitates" into the next cell when its date is reached.

 

[TBeholder]

Oh, and an useful tool for this (if you insist on hex), and hex maps in general: extension for Inkscape making customizable hex grids. https://github.com/lifelike/hexmapextension (their site with examples is on the list: http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/Extension_repository but it hosts older versions that don't work with newer Inkscape)