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Message: <blockquote data-quote="kenada" data-source="post: 8288120" data-attributes="member: 70468">While I had previous versions I could use as a base (see: <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/uxwgmy7kiunjm9q/Hexmap.jpeg" target="_blank">v1</a> and <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/rb0smvoy59mx5cq/Hexmap%20%28Revised%29.png" target="_blank">v2</a>), I ended up having making some fairly big changes. I followed WWN’s advice not to go too detailed, so it’s just a <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/dale4qt8tk5lb2h/Hexmap%20%28Draft%29.png" target="_blank">sketch</a> currently. I did the first of those prior iterations in <a href="https://www.profantasy.com/products/cc3.asp" target="_blank">Campaign Cartographer 3+</a> and the second in <a href="https://www.mapeditor.org" target="_blank">Tiled</a> using a couple of pixel hex tilesets I bought on itch.io (<a href="https://zeshio.itch.io/pixel-hex" target="_blank">tileset 1</a> and <a href="https://zeshio.itch.io/pixel-hex-2" target="_blank">tileset 2</a>). I’m probably going to go with CC3+ again, but I’m just leaving it as a sketch for now while I work through kingdom creation.I wonder if starting with a fractal terrain tool would work better. I assume part of the issue is the coastlines and other features don’t match our intuitive expectations of what they should look like, so it’s like some uncanny valley thing.Aside from naming the region, I’m just using generic names too. “Orc Nation”, “Kobold Nation”, “Vuple Nomads”, and so on. I’ll give them proper names once I go through kingdom creation and pick linguistic touchstones. It wasn’t worth further delay trying to figure out names for everything while I was trying to put together the framework. <img class="smilie smilie--emoji" alt="😅" src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f605.png" title="Grinning face with sweat    :sweat_smile:" data-shortname=":sweat_smile:" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" />Kevin Crawford’s makes a pointed observation on fantasy names devised by GMs. I’ve opted to keep the English names for the distinctive features because those can be evocative to players in a way that foreign ones won’t, but I’m going to lean heavily on linguistic touchstones for everything else. (Also, no “th” is a good guideline!)Roll a bunch of stuff then try to figure out how it makes sense?So if you get: pit, ancient farmland, canyons, swamp, rain forest, weathered mountains. You could have the pit be a permanent whirlpool that legends say leads to paradise, but no one who has entered has come back alive. The ancient farmland is an island chain that was terraformed to support growing food from non-tropical climates. The canyon is a trench on the bottom of the sea where a sea-dwelling, sapient species lives. The swamp is a fouled, boglike area between several islands where sea-dwelling Outsiders went to die (like beached whales except more evil). The locals are deathly afraid of whatever could be in there (so that means treasure, right?). The rain forest is the default biome for islands. The weathered mountains are a central chain of islands with a large, dormant volcano at the center that hasn’t erupted for eons and has worn down over time into a big hill with a caldera.</blockquote>

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