OSR Making random hex crawl maps

[Ahndrostalgan]

I am thinking about running an old-fashioned outdoor hex crawl, letting the terrain be generated as the players explore the map (my inspiration really being the old Avalon Hill “Source of the Nile” game). This is really a specific question about random terrain generators—using tables or some sort of web/computer assisted mechanism.

Does anyone know of a generator, or has made one themselves, which factors into the roll for the next hex players wish to enter some sort of modifier based on the terrain for the hex the players are currently in? In other words, if the players are in a mountain hex, the odds ought to be slightly higher than baseline that the next hex is also a mountain hex (or perhaps at least a “hills” hex), and once the players move into a hex that DOES shift the terrain significantly (such as mountain hex to a grasslands hex), the odds should be higher than baseline that they stay in such grasslands rather than march right back into a mountain hex.

This may all sound a little persnickety, but many of the terrain tables I have seen just seem to treat the odds for finding a specific terrain in a given hex as the same each time you roll, and I’m not sure that is ideal. But if you want to call me out for being too fussy, feel feee to do so.

 

[Rabulias]

I am thinking about running an old-fashioned outdoor hex crawl, letting the terrain be generated as the players explore the map (my inspiration really being the old Avalon Hill “Source of the Nile” game). This is really a specific question about random terrain generators—using tables or some sort of web/computer assisted mechanism.

Does anyone know of a generator, or has made one themselves, which factors into the roll for the next hex players wish to enter some sort of modifier based on the terrain for the hex the players are currently in? In other words, if the players are in a mountain hex, the odds ought to be slightly higher than baseline that the next hex is also a mountain hex (or perhaps at least a “hills” hex), and once the players move into a hex that DOES shift the terrain significantly (such as mountain hex to a grasslands hex), the odds should be higher than baseline that they stay in such grasslands rather than march right back into a mountain hex.

This may all sound a little persnickety, but many of the terrain tables I have seen just seem to treat the odds for finding a specific terrain in a given hex as the same each time you roll, and I’m not sure that is ideal. But if you want to call me out for being too fussy, feel feee to do so.

I think hex flowers might be a good system for what you want. See here: Hex Flower Power

I find them particularly nice for generating random terrain or weather.

 

[Hriston]

I use the AD&D DMG, p 173, which does what you're asking.

 

[Ahndrostalgan]

I use the AD&D DMG, p 173, which does what you're asking.

Are you seriously telling me that Gygax told me to do this, and because I haven’t bothered to reread the DMG in decades that I missed/forgot it??? And to think you passed up making fun of me …

 

[RealAlHazred]

I'm not sure if it's of interest to you, but there's two online generators you should maybe check out:

• HexRoll
• HexDescribe