Hex by hex sandboxing

[rounser]

my first DM told me that this was how he created his first couple of campaign worlds circa 1983.

Ha. Nothing new under the sun. I take it he was influenced by Wilderlands then. (And that is one nice map you have there.)

I think a workable compromise to this approach might be to create a world that is geologically sound then use the above methodology to do the detailing, beginning at a point that could be the starting point for a campaign then working outward, perhaps in an ever-increasing spiral pattern.

Sure, although the temptation to spend more time on painting in undetailed continents than on actually populating hexes would probably prevail for most of us, and it would be worldbuilding business as usual I'd expect.

the warhammer fantasy Border Princes book I like a lot. Its kinda similar to this but you basically roll a percentage, and thats how many squares of a certain land type you get. After you generate the map, you randomly get ancient evils, orc lairs, villages, towns, local lords, and all of the interesting encounters within. All randomly rolled, its awesome.

That does sound awesome. I'd be interested to see how it was implemented. Is the name of this book "Border Princes"?

The problem with every hex being interesting is that I'd never get past hex 10.

Well, you could write boring hexes, if it makes you feel better.

 

[jdrakeh]

Ha. Nothing new under the sun. I take it he was influenced by Wilderlands then.

Possibly. It has been a while, though, and my memory is horrible.

(And that is one nice map you have there.)

Thanks! FWIW, I used variants of the abstract travel times in OD&D Book III to plot my map, rather than hard and fast modern measurements (e.g., miles).

[Edit: The final map is here]