Let’s Make a Hexcrawl Setting

[Sanglorian]

There are some fairly stocky dimetrodons - I'm sure we could find something on Wikimedia Commons.

[...] for the fangbeasts I was actually thinking of these guys from the Permian:
http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m4ajfuQujU1rrpn3bo1_1280.jpg
http://evolutionaryroutes.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/gorgonopsians_wm_250tall.jpg?w=640
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-YeKO4f2vifk/Tg3R00KJ3YI/AAAAAAAABek/nlkhNN6WUnQ/s1600/therapsid.jpg
http://img.ezinemark.com/imagemanager2/files/30003693/2010/11/a1a5.jpg
http://fc02.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2010/122/8/6/inostrancevia_alexandri_by_karkemish00.jpg
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_LOpbWIPseDg/Szj6kmO3YkI/AAAAAAAAALo/HxgIs4vZ5qc/s1600/Inostrancevia.gif
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_YJtJVrH3c5k/R1SRiolxN1I/AAAAAAAAAMc/y2vmHJwZjj8/s1600-R/Inostrancevia.jpg

And giving lizardmen a Permian theme but deinonychus is more famous and metal and easier to communicate to players. Thoughts?

The whole lizardfolk-dinosaur thing is overdone. Lizardfolk-therapsids sounds much, much cooler. There aren't as many illustrations for them as there are on Wikimedia Commons, but there's a fair few. (Categoryermian animals could serve as inspiration and illustration for anyone who wanted to add more lizardfolk beasts).

EDIT: And something I just thought of: just as the therapsids were the predecessors to mammals, it's possible that in the Shrouded Lands humans descended from the lizardfolk!

---

I looked through Telecanter's public domain silhouettes (in the sidebar) and there are definitely some that could illustrate hexes. I'll use the following format: TELE > [beginning of the name of the file] for files that are directly in the ZIP after you extract it, and then TELE > [subfolder] > [beginning of the name of the file] for files that are in subfolders.

Hex 51.29: TELE > M - Ape
Hex 36.04: TELE > M - Roc
Hex 02.10 or 30.15: TELE > SVG > M - Eagle
Hex 01.06 or 05.20 or 34.00: TELE > M - Rook
Hex 03.08, 12.22 or 16.16: TELE > M - Boar (2 options)
Hex 40.20: TELE > M - Centaur (3 options)
Hex 20.32 or 44.19: TELE > M - Crab
Hex 08.06: TELE > M - Croc
Hex 43:22: TELE > M - Kangaroo
Hex 11.15, 29.10: TELE > M - Deer (4 options), TELE > M - Elk
Hex 07.21: TELE > SVG > M - Burro (2 options)
Hex 27.23: TELE > SVG > M - Dragon Turtle
Hex 13.06: TELE > SVG > M - Ettin

That's some of the ones that I have. I'll do more later if this is useful to you.

 

[Daztur]

I agree heartily about the theraspids. Ooooh yes those silhouettes are perfect, I'll have to include those. I've just got so much art in my public domain art archive of doooooom that it's getting hard to manage it all. Will add that to the list of stuff to work in (along with a lot of 19th century continental and American artists, I've been mostly focusing on Brit ones so far have to branch out). Eventually we'll have an illustration for every last hex although some of the weirder ones will be a challenge.

 

[Sanglorian]

I found two images on Wikimedia Commons that could illustrate the Kingswood:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chetwood.jpg
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Elf_markwoman_by_Kitty.png

More silhouettes:

Hex 40.20: TELE - M - Hippo
Hex 08.16: TELE - SVG - M - Bee
Hex 06.05 or 14.02: TELE - SVG - M - Beetle
Hex 02.08: TELE - M - Centipede
Hex 29.14: TELE - SVG - M - Mosquito
Kingswood Random Encounters (the one that mentions ticks): TELE - SVG - M - Flea
The Mounts of Thring: TELE - M - Lizard
Hex 16.15: TELE - M - Devilfish
Hex 26.20: TELE - M - Medusa
With Morning Comes Mistfall: TELE - M - Flying Monkey
Hex 11.15: TELE - M - Peryton
Kingswood Random Encounters or Hex 14.14: TELE - M - Rat (2 options)
Hex 03.02: TELE - M - Wooly Rhinocerous
Hex 01.05: TELE - M - Seal (to represent a selkie)
Hex 05.24: TELE - SVG - M - Snail
Hex 13.08: TELE - M - Spider
Hex 01.10 or 08.06: TELE - M - Giant Squid
Hex 03.26: TELE - M - Toad
Hex 38.27: TELE - M - Vulture
Hex 08.16 or 33.01: TELE - M - Wolf
Hex 15.15: TELE - M - Dragon 2
Hex 51.29: TELE - M - Mammoth (2 options)
Hex 46.06: TELE - M - Giraffe
Hex 29.14 and 39.32: TELE - M - Griffon (2 options)

There are also some monsters that have several hex entries that could apply. I'll just give these by the name of the monster in the appendices and you can put them where they're needed.

Horses: TELE - M - Horse (2 options)
Lions: TELE - M - Lion
Minotaurs: TELE - M - Minotaur
Mules: TELE - M - Mule
Octoids: TELE - M - Giant Octopus or TELE - Mashups - Octotaur (depending on how you imagine the octoids, I guess)
Ogres: TELE - M - Ogre
Birds (ostriches): TELE - SVG - M - Ostrich
Sheep: TELE - M - Sheep
Skeleton: TELE - M - Skeleton (2 options), TELE - SVG - M - Skeleton
Snakes: TELE - M - Snake, TELE - SVG - M - Snake
Undead: TELE - M - Undead (2 options)
Unicorns: TELE - M - Unicorn
Whales: TELE - M - Whale
Bats: TELE - M - Bat
Bears: TELE - M - Bear (several options)
Cattle: TELE - M - Cow, TELE - M - Bison, TELE - M - Zebu
Dogs: TELE - M - Dog (several options), TELE - SVG - M - Dog (several options) (my vague ideas: Great Dane for black dogs, Mastiff for black mastiffs, Newfoundland for blind dogs, Bull Terrier for blink dogs, Doberman for Narosi hairless, Deerhound for witch-hounds)
Dragons: TELE - M - Wyvern, TELE - SVG - M - Dragon
Elephants: TELE - M - Elephant (2 options)
Fish: TELE - M - Fish
Giants: TELE - M - Giant
Gnolls: TELE - M - Gnoll, TELE - Mashups - Wolfman
Gnomes: TELE - M - Gnome
Goats: TELE - SVG - M - Goat
Goblins: TELE - M - Goblin (2 options)

 

[Daztur]

Sanglorian: I've added in the questing beast pic and I'll be adding in those silhouettes for the next update to the compilation (will have it done within the next few days).

The Suitor's Tower
Additional information about Hex 29.14

Made with: http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeo...um-of-orphone-random.html?zx=83e468cc5320f313

As a mages grow in power the laws of reality twist to their whims, but no matter how great they wax their bodies remain feeble things caught in the flow of time. So Iraine's quest for immortality is not surprising but perhaps her plan to achieve it is. She plans to get married.

And now just anyone, to Amelar of the God of the City of Shuttered Windows. If he married the Green Lady and She Who Waits, why now her? For the last decade most of Iraine's efforts have been focused on achieving this end. She has drained most of her treasury, stolen secrets from the minotaurs, traded lore with Dormond of the Crooked Oak (04.31), and has returned from the depths of the Library without a Floor (28.07).

Her lofty thousand-corniced tower, which is always shrouded in storm clouds (so that it never casts a shadow), is now full with strange oddities and parts of a thousand creatures, torture chambers in which men's secrets are peeled off with their skins and strange labs full of smoking vats in which strange things crawl in spider limbs.

Iraine the Suitor has not yet won the hand of a god but she is confident that her research is nearing its conclusion and soon she will ascend.

Hooks:
-Does marrying a god really turn you into one? Has anyone done this?
-Why is it important that Iraine's tower never cast a shadow?
-What interesting secrets does Iraine the Suitor know?
-What exactly is she trying to do to win Amelar's hand?
-What interesting stuff in her tower?
-What are those snake-legged thingies?

 

[Daztur]

The Chimera of the Suitor's Tower

Created using: http://santicore.blogspot.kr/2012/12/random-chimera-generator.html

One of the most interesting of the products of Iraine's vats is a chimera who answers to the name of Lars. She created him in an attempt to create Amelar anew in human form. Thanks to his creator he has the long graceful legs of a su-giraffe (46.06), octoid (23.32) limbs along his spine as is proper and much more besides. He is completely devoted to his creator, just as she intended, but after long years in which she ignored him to pursue her researches his devotion twisted into mad jealousy.

Now he commands the gargoyles of the walls and the otyugh in the basement and maintains the curses on the ceilings with single-minded vigilance. He will attempt to kill anyone he views as a rival for his lady's affections, especially priests, and is doing all he can to sabotage Iraine's attempts to wed Amelar.

Lars has, however, struck up a strange friendship with several castrati members of the Necromantic Office (29.14.35) and this alliance has helped keep Iraine safe from the wrath of the Temple Indivisible.

Hooks:
-Any other interesting chimeras about?
-Why would an attempt to create "Amelar in human form" involve su-giraffe legs, tentacles on the back and "much more besides?"
-What was Iraine purpose in creating Lars?
-What kind of gargoyles are they? Are they ivory ones (41.18.01). Why is there an otyugh in the basement? What are the curses in the ceilings?
-How can Lars sabotage his lady's wooing of Amelar?

Connection I'll throw in: Iraine is the elder sister of Uriza the Solemn (15.24).

 

[Daztur]

Sanglorian: added a bunch of those silhouette images. A lot of them are really useful since they fill in holes that I haven't been able to find 19th century paintings of. Many thanks.

 

[Electric Wizard]

Birlwood Hold (21.14)
Connected to (29.14)

Birlwood Hold is a modest keep presided over by the Knights of the Cudgel, an ascetic order that keeps peace along Thring's border. The Cudgels are few in number and almost unrecognizable as knights. The Witch Queen and the clans frustrate or outright destroy questing knights who charge into their lands with mount and blade. So for generations, the Cudgels have cast aside weapons, armor and mounts to study esoteric magic traditions. Many can barely swing a sword or walk in chain mail, but are formidable in whatever arcane discipline they devote themselves too. All initiated knights carry an enchanted cudgel that signifies their rank. When the border is quiet, many brothers venture into Thring and elsewhere to battle evil and seek arcane knowledge.

The leader of their order is known as the Spellknight. He alone can conjure the dreaded Phantom Steed. The Phantom Steed, by some accounts, is made of thundercloud, has hooves of fire, and charges through the sky like a meteor. It has not been seen for at least a decade. The current Spellknight, Sir Codwise the Old, is an elusive character unpopular among his brothers. He spends most of his time compiling a personal library via contacts in the Necromantic Office. The Cudgels have traditionally frowned on necromancy and are loathe to deal with Shuttered, and they hope to replace him soon.

Before the band of landless knights that would become the Cudgels seized this forest, it was home to the Birls. The Birls were a witch clan that breathed life to their grotesque wooden carvings. Sir Eclan the Lame, the first Spellknight, discovered that although the gargoyle's hides turned their steel weapons, they were vulnerable to wood. His knights fashioned cudgels from the tree branches and destroyed the gargoyles. The Birls who were not slain scattered to the corners of the Shrouded Lands and made a living as artisans and artificers. Jossetta Birl is one of the most prominent descendants. She creates wooden gargoyles for Iraine, the Doge and others. Burglars and assassins fear her gargoyles because long, aggravating splinters linger in the wounds they inflict.

Hooks
-Who are some prominent Knights of the Cudgel? What are their deeds?
-What properties do their enchanted cudgels hold?
-Is the Phantom Steed a demon, or something else?
-What is Sir Codwise the Old up to in his dealings with the Necromantic Office? Who are some pretenders to his leadership?
-Who are some other Birls?
-Who else uses wooden gargoyles?

 

[Daztur]

The Wives of Viceroy Orhan
Additional information about Hex 19.31

Note: I’ve started rereading the Dying Earth by Jack Vance and it’s easy to see why they influenced Gygax so much, I can barely read a page without scribbling something down that gives me ideas for this setting. This one is very loosely inspired by the ending of Mazirian the Magician. I’ve also started randomly choosing a page number each time I write a hex and then connecting the hex I’m writing to that one, which has been giving me some interesting ideas for the last few hexes I’ve written.

It is easy to see why the Viceroys made Orhan treasurer of Jahur. Despite his protestations about the cost of the material components, how could they not make a man who could turn lead to gold their treasurer?

And Orhan did not only make his own gold, he built his own palace and sculpted his own wives. In his younger days, fresh from serving as an apprentice of the Lady (40.06) the Viceroys of the Jahur showed him their daughters one by one, but Orhan found much to be desired both in the girls themselves and in the heavy duties that every Jahuri man owes to his father in-law.

He decided he could do better himself and grew his own wives in his vats and had a gnoll of the kharghaha sing souls into them (51.29.02). Their beauty and grace were envied by all of Jahur and Orhan owes his live to his favorite wife, Ronais, who was struck down defending him from the wax golem that attacked him. Although her body was shattered, one of Orhan’s apprentices was able to cut out her brain and keep it safe until a new body can be built for it.

For his own safety Ohran now lies languishing in a dungeon and, while he has forgotten much, he has not forgotten Ronais and constantly rants and beats his fists screaming that he must be let out to build her a new body before it is too late.

Hooks:
-What material components are needed to turn lead into gold? Why other alchemy does (did?) Orhan know?
-How did Orhan build his own palace?
-What duties do Jahuri men owe their father in-laws?
-Are there any differences between vat-born and normal humans? Did Orhan grow anything besides wives in his vats?
-Why did Orhan need gnolls to sing soul into his wives? What’s special about gnollish singing?
-Too late? Too late for what? In his current state what sort of body would Orhan create?
-Is there anything else to tell about the love of Orhan and Ronais?

Connection: the Lady grew similar people in vats (37.07). Maybe that’s why she kept the gnolls around in her tower…

The Burnt Caravan
Hex 11.05

Maris Hallover is expecting the arrival of a supply caravan at Uncle Bertie’s Trading Post (03.08). She’ll be waiting for a long time because it was ambushed by goblins (11.01). The creatures were angered by the lies that the Furhoof (17.05) merchants told them and fell upon the caravan at night, their shrieks panicking the Furhoof ostriches.

The corpses of the halflings and ostriches are now nowhere to be seen but a grove of oak saplings already grows among the burnt wreckage of the caravan.

The only survivor of the attack (or at least the only one still in the area) is a very annoyed were-shark (00.06) that was being transported to the Ocean of Bitter Regrets in a salt water tank mounted on a great wagon. While in shark form it stays in a small pond and refuses to go far when it legs return for it for fear of being stranded on dry land when it returns to shark form.

Hooks:
-What is it with goblins and oak trees?
-How will Maris and the Furhooves react to the goblin attack?
-What lies did the Furhoofs tell the goblins that angered them so? Or do all lies burn goblin ears?
-Why were the goblins able to panic the ostriches so easily? Is there something strange about goblin voices?
-Who is the were-shark? What was it doing being carted about?

 

[Daztur]

Was just looking at the sci-fi mapsets for hexographer and I've been thinking of maybe doing a sci-fi spinoff of this thread for an old school sci-fi Traveler-type setting. This wouldn't happen for a while (few months?) but I've had so much fun with this thread that I thought it might be fun to give the sci-fi half of my brain a bit of workout as well.

However, unlike with fantasy you really have to set up some ground rules about basic physics since that can't be quite as inconsistent as magic.

Some random thoughts to making a sci-fi setting that's as game-able as possible.
-A long time ago scientists figured out that the sun was getting ready to go nova way ahead of schedule. People were upset about this and built lots of massive generation ships (slower than light) to get people away from Earth before the sun went boom. These scattered to anything that looked like it might be habitable within range of the solar system.
-The sun goes boom. Poor bastards who got left behind die. Maybe some survivors in the outer solar system.
-The generation ships keep on trucking and human culture goes weird in a lot of them. Some establish human civilization on other worlds, many die, many go feral.
-Some smart guy figures out FTL tech. It works by going through "wormholes" that link solar systems. Some wormholes are really big and can fit an entire fleet going through at once but most are small enough to not be useful or to only let through a small tramp steamer in space. The bigger ones are very stable, the smaller ones are less stable and the really tiny ones can land you on the other end of the galaxy for all you know. All but the biggest only let through one ship at a time so they make good defensive/toll collecting bottlenecks.
-The early adopters of the FTL tech spread out pretty quickly across the big wormhole lines met up with the human cultures they'd been out of contact with (not having FTL travel made contact very hard). They dominated the wormhole network, sometimes conquering, sometimes just camping the wormhole gates with battle station and collect tolls and generally acting like big jerks.
-However there's loopholes in the dominion of the big jerkass powers. Some small powers were able to defend their wormhole links and are hard to conquer since the wormholes are choke points (but if you get enough spies...) and there are small craft all over the place going through the small worm holes and acting as pirates, smugglers, traders looking for shortcuts, prospectors, and explorers looking for lost human planets, weird alien races or whatever weird stuff is at the other end of some uncharted wormhole. The smaller wormholes shifting around a lot makes this dangerous but potentially very profitable (the other end could have a space monster or a major commercial center willing to buy your good for ten times what you paid for them). Those guys in the little ships would be the PCs.
-No real thoughts on aliens, but weird-ass alien artifacts would be a given.
-Tech levels would be VERY uneven and there could be a lot of weird-ass tech on specific worlds that hasn't spread since the unreliable wormhole network and the jerkasses dominating it would often make it hard for tech to spread.
-Lingua franca is youtube comment/twitter style ungrammatical abomination version of English.
-Would the hex map show relation in actually space or relative locations on the wormhole network? I think the later would be easier. Throw in some handwavium about how sun-light stars get more wormholes so we don't have to put in a gazillion "nope nothing interesting here, just a bit star" systems and not have to worry about if the distribution of planets is realistic since people only care about planets they can get to via wormhole and those aren't representative of the average mix of solar systems because of *handwave*


Thoughts?

 

[Sanglorian]

Sounds like an interesting project! Unfortunately, the only sci-fi I really engage with is pulp/space opera like Star Wars and Princess of Mars. I do think that would make a good base for a hexcrawl ... maybe I'll start a spin off myself in a year or two