Underdark Map Generator?

[sykoholic]

Is there a tool out there somewhere that will randomly generate maps of the Underdark? I'm not talking maps of caves and tunnels but instead, maps like those found in the classic D1-Descent into the Depths of the Earth wherein tunnels are indicated by solid, dashed, or dotted lines and encounter locations are simply dots. As a result, the map actually covers miles upon miles rather than just a small area.

If there isn't such a generator, how difficult would it be to make one? I know nothing about coding/programming so I haven't the vaguest notion what all would be involved.

 

[XCorvis]

I've never seen one myself.

Programming one is probably relatively easy, at least in comparison to other dungeon generators. Having written neither, I really can't comment beyond that.

 

[darkhall-nestor]

good module

why not just draw some lines on hex paper?

 

[Pyrandon]

If you know how to use any graphics program--no matter how simple--you could draw this & set lines to dashed (or, even less sophisticated, just erase segments of the line to make the dashes.) Really, what you're looking for is very, very simple.

Just some ideas. Have fun!

 

[Gozzy]

Sykoholic,

Can you post to here (or send me - webmaster at NOSPAM gozzys dot com), an example of the type of map you are talking about? I have a number of random generators on my site at http://www.gozzys.com/ and I am looking to expand the range so this may be something I can work on.

Shame that the cave map generator isn't what you want as I have one of those!

 

[sykoholic]

Gozzy:

I've emailed a couple of samples to you. I can't post them here as they are copywritten material.

Don't get me wrong, I love your Cave Map generator. I just looking for something that maps out miles upon miles of tunnels rather than just a single cavern.

Pyrandon and darkhall-nestor:

Yes... such simple maps would be fairly easy to draw myself. Think of it this way though. If each hex represents 5 miles, by clicking the "Generate Map" button nine times, you could have nearly 27,000 square miles* of Underdark mapped out in a matter of just a couple minutes.

*Hopefully I did the math correctly and didn't make myself look like too much of an idiot.

 

[Pyrandon]

Yes... such simple maps would be fairly easy to draw myself. Think of it this way though. If each hex represents 5 miles, by clicking the "Generate Map" button nine times, you could have nearly 27,000 square miles* of Underdark mapped out in a matter of just a couple minutes.

Point taken. That would be pretty cool! Feeeel the power........

 

[sykoholic]

Other Uses

Another cool thing about such a generator is that the maps wouldn't necessarily have to represent the Underdark. Instead of tunnels, the various lines could represent pathways or trails through a forest or channels through a marsh/swamp.

 

[Phril]

Odd as it may sound, if what you're looking for is just points on a map connected by lines, you might want to look at starmap generators for games like Traveller. They would generate you a page of hexagons filled with a number of dots connected by various lines, which you could probably adapt to underdark maps.

On a side note, for the more general 'kingdom wide cave map', I know a lot of folks use plasma render effects in Photoshop or GIMP to produce landscape maps.. in theory by changing various tolerances or using different filter effects (I find edge detect combined with different addition/subtration maps works well) you could have something a bit more solid than dotted lines to show.