a MAZE ing | mazes in RPGs; cracking the code ?

I love the idea of mazes. They captured my imagination when I first encountered the story of the minotaur

The problem is, mazes are not very interesting in RPG / D&D like games.

Well, that is not quite true – mechanically mazes are not interesting to explore because of the language barrier; that is DM & players needing to communicate the precise spatial arrangements of the walls would be excruciating (especially if the walls are not all right angles).

Here’s a map from Against the Cult of the Reptile God – it’s not even a very big maze, but I wouldn’t want to run it in a hurry:

Really, someone needs to make Doom-like 3rd person shooter like geomorph cards:

Then players could explore more intuitively without the need for language – but setting up and indexing the geomorph cards to make a maze would be a bind for the DM (maybe it has been done?).

“Maze concept module”

So, anyway, back in 2017 I first wrote a ‘concept module’ about exploring labyrinths, first called “Into the Hive” and released on G+; it got redrafted in 2018, and revamped and Kickstarted in 2023 as “Carapace” (now with fancy art – linked at the bottom!) .

Essentially, the ‘concept module’ gave 3 x ways to explore a maze:

I won’t dwell on the exact methods used, except to say the ‘Labyrinth Move’ by Jason Cordova was the genesis of my ‘concept module’.

“Big Idea”

At the heart of these 3 x methods was MAPLESS exploration that was EPISODAL.

The ‘big idea’ was that in a finite period of exploration (whatever that time was in your game – 10 minutes, an hour etc.) the party would progress in the maze (or not), and they might have an encounter (or not) in that ‘episode’ of play.

Rinse + repeat until the party was dead or escaped the maze – simples.

Other examples

(i) Gardens of Ynn

This ‘big idea’ of mapless episodal exploration was also encapsulated in Garden of Ynn (GoY); the idea here is you go “deeper” into the maze-like garden or you retreat out.
So again, there is no map, and each move in the maze is episodal.

>> LINK <<

(ii) Labyrinth by Ben Milton

I don’t own a copy of Labyrinth by Ben Milton (perhaps I should), but his video review appears to show that exploration in his Labyrinth also follows this ‘big idea’:

>> LINK  <<

So, again, exploration is mapless and episodal. It also has an interesting Fighting Fantasy type vibe (and that also reminds me of this Mindstorm Ladder mechanic). The mechanic in this case presumes you are trying to get to the centre of the maze, so has a one-way ‘going deeper’ vibe. Also, like Carapace it has defined zones to track progress in the maze and to give each zone its own flavour.

(iii) Flux Space

I was recently listening to Ben Laurence’s podcast about Mega Dungeons (episode 5), and you should listen to this podcast too, and became aware of Nick LS Whelan’s “Flux space” idea.

>> LINK <<

Again, this method neatly obviates the use of a map to explore a maze and again embraces episodal exploration. Take a look.

Summary

Carapace, GoY, Labyrinth and Flux Space all ditch the physical maze layout as uninteresting, in all cases there is abstracted progress through a maze which is episodal.

–> Go make your own Abstracted Maze Exploration Tool today!!

Please tell me more other neat ways of exploring mazes (someone must have done a Jenga Block or deck of cards based version ?!)

Oh, get your copy of Carapace today, it comes it two stripes FREE and FANCY (cover below):

Functional Entries in Random Tables | more scope but comes with more user load

Recently I been thinking about functional entries in random tables.

In my ‘In the Heart of Oz’ (a system neutral) sandbox, based in the land of Oz, I wanted to add some random tables but wanted these to “work hard” for the limited space available.

So, I wondered about replacing single entry random tables with functional entry random tables. For example instead of ‘sword’ you use ‘bladed weapon’ and let the user decide if it is a sword or an axe or a ‘bec de corbin’. 

This is a pretty trite example but of course you can take this further (see below).

I’m sure this idea/concept has happened in the past, but when I have done this (at least), it’s been more an unconscious design choice rather than a conscious design choice. I’d like to hold this idea up as a conscious design choice for the DM’s toolbox.

Benefit – gives a much bigger spectrum of outcomes

Downside – require the user to bring more of themselves to the table (which might be the very thing they are trying to avoid by using random tables!). 

Some might like the idea, but might displease others … I’m not the RPG police so please feel free to ignore this idea. 

– – – 

To see something I’m tinkering with this idea – Link: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1UjKpTc0yvn0A0LjBJiu4cRy-XuX_gqxp?usp=sharing

The idea is to do this on the fly (or pre-prepare some), but also source the table – throw this at players – Tell me what item you find based on these 3 constraints … etc

Below is an text only extract from the above linked PDF: 

Random Creature Builder

Roll once on each of the two tables below:

Base Creature

1                 Apex predator

2                 Large herbivore or domestic animal

3                 Monkey, ape or lemur

4                 Rodent or marsupial

5                 Amphibian or reptile

6                 Bird or dinosaur

7                 Insect or arachnid

8                 Crustacean or echinoderm

9                 Gastropod or cephalopod

10              Human(oid) – or you decide

Creatures are normally at least man-sized

Twist

1                 Roll on table above – hybrid of both e.g. a Human(oid)-crustacean

2                 Unusual locomotion: Fly, hover, burrow, crawl, creep, jump etc.

3                 Oversized/mutantous body part or extra parts – limbs, mouth, eyes etc.

4                 Unusual sized e.g. giant, long etc.

5                 Exotic colouring or display

6                 Made of artificial material

7                 Mushroom, vegetable creature, or made of natural material

8                 Roll on ‘Terrain descriptor’ table 

9                 Roll on this table twice – has both

10              Roll again on this and on the below table 

Special

1                 Offensive: looks, smell, charisma etc

2                 Insubstantial: ghostly, ethereal etc.

3                 Resembles man-made object, can mimic things, or is a doppelganger

4                 Spits fire, acid, ice, stones, spines, bile, eels, buttons, rainbows etc.

5                 Unusual strength or speed

6                 Contradictory property of a typical creature of the ‘Base’ creature class

7                 Teleport locally, or is transparent

8                 Ability to petrify – gaze, touch etc.

9                 Ability to cast magic or illusions

10              Roll on this table again – has both

– – – 

More info: 

In the Heart of (the Land of the Wizard of) Oz is a system-neutral procedural sandbox setting which draws inspiration from the books of L. Frank Baum and with artwork by the wonderful Nate Treme (Highland Paranormal Society)

In the Heart of Oz contains procedural Encounter, Terrain and Weather Engines for Wilderness Hex Crawling across the fairy-tale like land of Oz. There is also a procedural ‘dungeon’ to take on the Wicked Witch of the West in her Yellow Castle.

Preview image

Hex Flowers … what?
A Hex Flower is a bit like a random table, but with an inbuilt ‘memory’ (because the last turn affects the next outcome). Each time you enter a new HEX, you procedurally determine what is going on. 

Hex Flower procedural products you might be interested in
:: In the Heart of the Unknown –  procedural wilderness (Hex) exploration
:: In the Heart of the Sea – procedural High Seas exploration
:: In the Heart of the Delve & Dangerous  – procedural ‘dungeon’ exploration
:: Carapace – adventure exploring a giant insect colony
:: Planar Compass 2 – procedurally explore the Astral Sea 

More on Hex Flower Theory
You can read more about Hex Flower Game Engines in my Hex Flower Cookbook

and on my Blog: https://goblinshenchman.wordpress.com/2018/10/25/2d6-hex-power-flower

Printing
This document can be conveniently printed using the ‘booklet’ option on printers that can print on both sides of the paper. Folding gives an A5 booklet.

Collaboration: ‘In the Heart of the Sea’ (+) ‘When Sea Is Calling’

I’ve collaborated with ATELIER CLANDESTIN who are blasting out great random table supplements.

We’ve brought together my ‘In the Heart of the Sea’ Hex Flowers with their ‘When Sea Is Calling’ – so this gives my one page ItHotS more depth.

Read more about the collaboration here: https://atelierclandestin.wixsite.com/home/post/announcement-when-sea-is-calling-extended-version  

Direct link – please check it out: 
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/397826/When-Sea-Is-Calling 

Background of Hex Flowers – what’s a Hex Flower anywho? A Hex Flower (HF) is like a random table, but with a memory.

Hex Flower Cookbook – where I discuss Hex Flower Game Engines and some background and possible uses

– – –

Me on DriveThru; at the moment I’m mainly pimping my procedural:
:: High Seas ‘Hex Crawl’ – In the Heart of the Sea,
:: Wilderness Hex Crawl – In the Heart of the Unknown,
:: Dungeon/network generator – In the Heart of the Delve & Dangerous

Portuguese Translation – Hex Flower Cookbook

I’m extremely grateful to Tito B.A. for translating my ‘Hex Flower Cookbook’ (Manual do “Hex Flower”) into Portuguese and so making it more accessible to more gamers!

Thank you Tito!!

Please check out Tito’s blog (https://titorpg.wordpress.com) and their DriveThruRPG page (https://www.drivethrurpg.com/browse/pub/13161/Tito-BA).  Tito is arguably best known for his excellent ‘Sacrebleu!’ island setting with goblins equipped with WW1 weaponry as reviewed on the Fear of a Black Dragon Podcast!

Background – what’s a Hex Flower anywho? A Hex Flower (HF) is like a random table, but with a memory.

Hex Flower Cookbook – where I discuss Hex Flower Game Engines and some background and possible uses

– – –

Me on DriveThruRPG

Two new Hex Flowers | Forest & Death Star attack

This is just a quick Hex Flower update.

:: In the Heart of the Eternal Forest  – procedurally explore an Eternal forest

:: Attack on the Death Star – Procedural attack on the Death Moon, Planet or Star – procedurally attack the Empire/s evil planet sized weapon 

 

Background – what’s a Hex Flower anywho? A Hex Flower (HF) is like a random table, but with a memory.

Hex Flower Cookbook – where I discuss Hex Flower Game Engines and some background and possible uses

– – –

Me on DriveThru; at the moment I’m mainly pimping my procedural:
:: High Seas ‘Hex Crawl’ – In the Heart of the Sea,
:: Wilderness Hex Crawl – In the Heart of the Unknown,
:: Dungeon/network generator – In the Heart of the Delve & Dangerous

In the Heart of Oz | Ukraine Code

I can’t do a lot to help Ukraine, but here’s a promo code for my ‘In the Heart of Oz’.
The code expires at the end of this month. 

Link: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/browse.php?discount=991b9d46b9

I will donate all money to help Ukrainian resist Putin.  
I’ll will also personally match the amount donated.

– – – 

More info: 

In the Heart of (the Land of the Wizard of) Oz is a system-neutral procedural sandbox setting which draws inspiration from the books of L. Frank Baum and with artwork by the wonderful Nate Treme (Highland Paranormal Society)

In the Heart of Oz contains procedural Encounter, Terrain and Weather Engines for Wilderness Hex Crawling across the fairy-tale like land of Oz. There is also a procedural ‘dungeon’ to take on the Wicked Witch of the West in her Yellow Castle.

Preview image

Hex Flowers … what?
A Hex Flower is a bit like a random table, but with an inbuilt ‘memory’ (because the last turn affects the next outcome). Each time you enter a new HEX, you procedurally determine what is going on. 

Hex Flower procedural products you might be interested in
:: In the Heart of the Unknown –  procedural wilderness (Hex) exploration
:: In the Heart of the Sea – procedural High Seas exploration
:: In the Heart of the Delve & Dangerous  – procedural ‘dungeon’ exploration
:: Carapace – adventure exploring a giant insect colony
:: Planar Compass 2 – procedurally explore the Astral Sea 

More on Hex Flower Theory
You can read more about Hex Flower Game Engines in my Hex Flower Cookbook

and on my Blog: https://goblinshenchman.wordpress.com/2018/10/25/2d6-hex-power-flower

Printing
This document can be conveniently printed using the ‘booklet’ option on printers that can print on both sides of the paper. Folding gives an A5 booklet.

Wolfram’s 4 colour theorem | Relationship mapping?

I was listening to Ray Otus’s podcast (which I like). He was talking about Wolfram’s Four colour theorem, which states (perhaps paraphrased as):

“Any map in a plane can be colored using four-colors in such a way that regions sharing a common boundary (other than a single point) do not share the same color”

I wondered if this could be used to map out relationships where each colour represents a certain intensity in that relationship from high to low. The idea being to design a relationship map that is random, but with some “design” to it.

Let’s try it out …

Example 1 – D&D starting characters – using Wolfram’s Four colour theorem

Maybe this design concept could be applied to D&D stats, where certain stats tend to go together … :

Rules:

1. Populate a 7 hex Hex Flower with each stat and one for wealth, so STR, INT, WIS, DEX, CON, CHAR & wealth
2. Using up to 4 pencils colour/outline the Hexes using Wolfram’s Four colour theorem, starting from the middle
3. Randomly assign each colour a different value from 1 to 4 using a D4 where: 

1 = low (6-9),
2 = medium-low (9-12),
3= medium-high (12-15)
4 = high (15-18):

Let’s try two examples:

Step 0 – Blank Hex Flower

Step 1 – populate the Hex Flower with the 6 stats and wealth:

Step 2 – colour according to Wolfram’s Four colour theorem (in this case using all 4 colours)

Step 3 – randomly assign each colour a different value from 1 to 4:

Red                     2  (- ) e.g. 5 days’ living wage 
Orange              4 (++) i.e. 15-18
Green                1 (- -) i.e. 6-9
Blue                   3 (+) i.e. 12-15

So the result is:

So the new PC is strong and tough (15-18), quite wise and personable (12-15), clumsy and dumb (6-9) and has modest wealth. So perhaps an fighter then from a poor background.

Let’s try it again (using the same stat placement), but with fewer colours more of a-go-for-broke min-max arrangement) and re-rolling:

Red                     3 (+) e.g. 3 months’ living wage
Orange              1 (- -) i.e. 6-9
Blue                   4 (++) i.e. 15-19
(no green)

            

So the new PC is very smart, wise, personable (15-18), but very weak, fragile and clumsy (6-9). But quite wealthy. Hrmmm, perhaps a Magic-user then for an affluent family.  

If this sort of min-max 3-colour-option option does not appeal, then you could get rid of the central hex (and get rid of wealth slot) and insist that all four colours are used.

Example 2 – Random NPC’s personality

Rules:

1. Populate a 7 hex Hex Flower with a personality trait, one from each group (you can make your own traits)
2. Using up to 4 pencils colour/outline the Hexes using Wolfram’s Four colour theorem, starting from the middle
3. Randomly assign each colour a different value from 1 to 4 using a D4 where:

1 = low (- -)
2 = medium-low (-)
3= medium-high (+)
4 = high (+ +)

7 NPC Traits:

1. wealth, resources, influence
2. status, reputation, level
3. cynical, duplicity, prejudice
4. Personable, warmth, empathic
5. wit, intelligent, charming
6. greed, selfish, evil
7. desperate, needs, desire

Let try two examples:

Step 0 – Blank Hex Flower

Step 1 – populate the Hex Flower with the 7 traits:

Step 2 – colour according to Wolfram’s Four colour theorem (in this case using all 4 colours)

Step 3 – randomly assign each colour a different value from 1 to 4:

Red                     4  (++)
Orange              3 (+)
Green                1 (- -)
Blue                   2 (-)

So the result is:

So, they really desire something from the PCs, they are quite wealthy and greedy, they are not especially smart or personable, they are of low social status but at least not very treacherous.  A quest giver, perhaps a merchant, who desperately wants something to (further) enrich themselves and is happy to pay the PCs to get it. 

What happens if we had coloured the hex’s differently, using just 3 colours e.g.:

 

Now they would have some desire to get something from the PCs, they would be smart, greedy and treacherous with no money, status and quite cold. Doesn’t sound like a nice chap. Perhaps a street thief full of animal cunning and wants the PCs’ coin. 

Again, three colours gives a more polarized outcome. 

Some initial conclusions – I think you can try and set this up so coloured pairs go together, perhaps wealth & status, greed & duplicity and wit & warmth.

That said, I wonder if we should scrap the middle hex and insist that 4 colours must be used to introduce less homogeneity. Perhaps.  

Is this useful (?)– not sure, just brainstorming here. Perhaps if you planning a session and want some inspiration about an NPC, or have a bunch of templates ready to pull out of a hat??

More
Clearly, these are not just the two ways this idea could be used. 

– – –

Me on DriveThruRPG

Thinking outside the Hex | ‘Hex Flower’ theory stuff

As many people following this blog will know, I’ve been making Hex Flowers with a navigation mechanic based on summing 2D6 (corresponding % probabilities shown on the right side) i.e.:

This ‘Navigation Hex’ being (part of) the rules for moving around a Hex Flower like this one:

I had a discussion with Jake Eldritch  (I will try and find the link) online about this idea, and concluded that 2D6 with a ‘disadvantage’ mechanic (i.e. roll 2 x D6 and take the lowest roll, e.g. a roll of 3 and 5 gives a 3 as the result) could give you this kind of ‘ Navigation Hex’ with fewer numbers around the edge:

Rather amazingly (to me anyway), it appears to have the same probability structure as above when I sum 2D6. You could argue that the ‘maths’ is simpler with the ‘disadvantage’ method, although not massively so. Here’s the ‘Anydice’ stats: 

But … recently it did make me wonder about other shapes, like an octagonal array with an octagonal ‘Navigation Oct’ or square array with a ‘Navigation Square?’ (or larger tiling shapes) – where the ‘disadvantage’ method might be simpler and more intuitive than summing two polygonal dice.

Here’s an example of an octagonal ‘flower’ with an octagonal “Navigation Hex”:

Summing 2D8 would give 16 at the top of the ‘Navigation Oct’,  then working clockwise around the ‘Navigation Oct’: 2-3, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9, 10-11, 12-13 and 14-15. That’s surely got to be harder than using the ‘disadvantage’ mechanic shown above. And, unless I’ve made an error gives the same probability structure.  

Just ‘noodling’ about the associated edge rules with the coloured arrows. Of course an ‘advantage’ mechanic could be used (instead of a disadvantage mechanic) to invert the probability structure.

For good form sake, here’s a 16 grid ‘flower’ using a 2D4 with a disadvantage mechanic (if you like a tip on your ‘flower’, perhaps use diamonds not squares):

… or even a square grid but with 8 possible directions of travel (including diagonals):

This post is more theoretical than anything, but does make using other shapes (other  than hexagons) to make flowers more accessible (I think). I have not worked out how strong the probability bias is (yet) for the octagonal and square “Navigation Hexes”, but intuition tells me, the more faces there are the less severe the probability bias.

Ok, that’s it.

Background

To read up of Hex Flowers (there may be a pop quiz) please see my Hex Flower Cookbook where I discuss Hex Flower Game Engines and some background and possible uses 

– – –

Me on DriveThruRPG

Questing Beast review | Planar Compass 2

 

Questing Beast review of Planner Compass 2:

… I helped with PC2.

Planner Compass 3 – LIVE on Kickstater now

With PC3, I’m just a fare paying passenger …

– – –

Me on DriveThruDriveThru

Hex Ed | Hex Flower online talk

Are you Hex Curious?

Is your poly gone?

Uncertain if hexagons are the bestygons?

Want to get off-the-grid but don’t know how?

Told that Hex with Flowers is unnatural?

Do you have questions about Hex Flowers but where too scared to ask ??

I’m giving a online talk on Sunday 30 January at 8pm (UK time) at BSer Con 2022 (https://tabletop.events/conventions/bs-er-con-2022) about Hex Flower design. Most of the gaming events at the con are now booked out, but there are still places for some online seminars including mine. I can’t promise you’ll get your 5 bucks worth, but you can turn up and see …  

Money raised goes to running the con and Leukemia Lymphoma Society.

Be there or be square …. 

Background

To read up of Hex Flowers (there may be a pop quiz) please see my Hex Flower Cookbook where I discuss Hex Flower Game Engines and some background and possible uses 

– – –

Me on DriveThruRPG

In the Heart of Oz | Hex Flower based system-neutral procedural sandbox setting

In the Heart of (the Land of the Wizard of) Oz is a system-neutral procedural sandbox setting which draws inspiration from the books of L. Frank Baum and with artwork by the wonderful Nate Treme (Highland Paranormal Society)

In the Heart of Oz contains procedural Encounter, Terrain and Weather Engines for Wilderness Hex Crawling across the fairy-tale like land of Oz. There is also a procedural ‘dungeon’ to take on the Wicked Witch of the West in her Yellow Castle.

Download PDF

Preview image

Hex Flowers … what?
A Hex Flower is a bit like a random table, but with an inbuilt ‘memory’ (because the last turn affects the next outcome). Each time you enter a new HEX, you procedurally determine what is going on. 

Hex Flower procedural products you might be interested in
:: In the Heart of the Unknown –  procedural wilderness (Hex) exploration
:: In the Heart of the Sea – procedural High Seas exploration
:: In the Heart of the Delve & Dangerous  – procedural ‘dungeon’ exploration
:: Carapace – adventure exploring a giant insect colony
:: Planar Compass 2 – procedurally explore the Astral Sea 

More on Hex Flower Theory
You can read more about Hex Flower Game Engines in my Hex Flower Cookbook

and on my Blog: https://goblinshenchman.wordpress.com/2018/10/25/2d6-hex-power-flower

Printing
This document can be conveniently printed using the ‘booklet’ option on printers that can print on both sides of the paper. Folding gives an A5 booklet.

Making Hex Flower Game Engines? Tell me about them?

I’m always interested to see what people are doing with Hex Flowers (HF).

Please tell me what you’re up to!
:O)

Recently the blogger from Tev’s Next Idea  showed me this:

:: WAmazon

Which is a neat idea about exploring a post-apocalyptic warehouse “manned” by killer robots. I think the idea is to make the full version (with an interesting depletion mechanic) available on DriveThru.

:: Map

And, on the Danger is Real blog, there is a program that uses In the ‘Heart of the Unknown’ to generate a terrain map (cool):

:: Limited access zones

On Redditor ‘iceandstorm’ showed me this neat idea where only parts of a(n extended) HF become available seasonally (I might try something like this at some point with a standard HF but with an extra 6 hexes, 3 on the upper left and 3 on the lower right ‘corners’ of the HF – maybe accessible when you have the magic key etc … dunno yet):

:: Monopoly

Speaking of new ways, I like my ‘non-return mechanic’ in my Monopoly HF:

The idea is you cannot simply go backwards in one turn. I had an idea for using this kind of idea for the start flooding sequence in Deep Carbon Observatory.

Background – what’s a Hex Flower anywho? A Hex Flower (HF) is like a random table, but with a memory.

Hex Flower Cookbook – where I discuss Hex Flower Game Engines and some background and possible uses

– – –

Me on DriveThru; at the moment I’m mainly pimping my procedural:
:: Weather generator – Weather Hex Flower
:: High Seas ‘Hex Crawl’ – In the Heart of the Sea,
:: Wilderness Hex Crawl – In the Heart of the Unknown,
:: Dungeon/network generator – In the Heart of the Delve & Dangerous

Story Synth | making online customizable Hex Flowers

If you are interested in Hex Flower design, this neat on-line tool to make customizable Hex Flowers may be of interest to you:

 

Check it out.

Background – what’s a Hex Flower anywho? A Hex Flower (HF) is like a random table, but with a memory.

Hex Flower Cookbook – where I discuss Hex Flower Game Engines and some background and possible uses

– – –

Me on DriveThru; at the moment I’m mainly pimping my procedural:
:: High Seas ‘Hex Crawl’ – In the Heart of the Sea,
:: Wilderness Hex Crawl – In the Heart of the Unknown,
:: Dungeon/network generator – In the Heart of the Delve & Dangerous

Hex Flower update | Weather Hex Flower -&- ItHotS goes Electrum

This is just a quick Hex Flower update.

::  In the Heart of the Sea recently went Electrum Metal Best Seller on DriveThruRPG
(it’s a one page procedural High Seas hex crawling tool).

:: I also recently release a standalone  Weather Hex Flower:

UPDATE – This recently went Copper best seller on DriveThruRPG

Background – what’s a Hex Flower anywho? A Hex Flower (HF) is like a random table, but with a memory.

Hex Flower Cookbook – where I discuss Hex Flower Game Engines and some background and possible uses

– – –

Me on DriveThru; at the moment I’m mainly pimping my procedural:
:: High Seas ‘Hex Crawl’ – In the Heart of the Sea,
:: Wilderness Hex Crawl – In the Heart of the Unknown,
:: Dungeon/network generator – In the Heart of the Delve & Dangerous

Hex Flower Demo | ‘Trial by Jury’ mini-game

In this video we play test my ‘Law & (In)Justice’ Hex Flower. Basically a trial by jury mini-game:

 

Jump to 35:50 to get to just the Hex Flower bit.

Link – You can get to the PDF of this Hex Flower here:

I get quite a few questions about how (my) Hex Flowers work. Fairly recently I uploaded some videos to YouTube where I play test these HFs with accompanying diagrams:

Complete Playlist – as above, but including all the actual plays e.g. boss fights etc.

 

Of course, this is not the only (or best) way to use HFs. This is just me testing HFs on a pal that has never used them before.

Background – what’s a Hex Flower anywho? A Hex Flower (HF) is like a random table, but with a memory.

Hex Flower Cookbook – where I discuss Hex Flower Game Engines and some background and possible uses

– – –

Me on DriveThru; at the moment I’m mainly pimping my procedural:
:: High Seas ‘Hex Crawl’ – In the Heart of the Sea,
:: Wilderness Hex Crawl – In the Heart of the Unknown,
:: Dungeon/network generator – In the Heart of the Delve & Dangerous

Hex Flower Demos | YouTube Actual Plays

TLDRQ – what’s a Hex Flower anywho? A Hex Flower (HF) is like a random table, but with a memory.

I get quite a few questions about how (my) Hex Flowers work. Fairly recently I uploaded some videos to YouTube where I playtest these HFs with accompanying diagrams:

 

• • Video 1 – HF used to explore into a maze like giant insect nest using ‘Carapace’

 

• • Video 2a – HF used to explore out of a maze like giant insect nest using ‘Carapace’

 

• • Video 2b – (if necessary jump to time ~ 1hr 16min) – HFs used to generate wilderness terrain, weather and encounters (procedural Hex Crawl) using ‘In the Heart of the Unknown’

 

• • Video 3 – continuing using HFs to procedurally generate wilderness terrain, weather and encounters (procedural Hex Crawl) using ‘In the Heart of the Unknown’

 

• Video 4 – Party get in a pickle – Trial by Jury Hex Flower

• • Complete Playlist – as above, but including all the actual plays e.g. boss fights etc.

 

Of course, this is not the only (or best) way to use HFs. This is just me testing HFs on a pal that has never used them before.

Hex Flower Cookbook – where I discuss Hex Flower Game Engines and some background and possible uses

– – –

Me on DriveThru; at the moment I’m mainly pimping my procedural:
:: High Seas ‘Hex Crawl’ – In the Heart of the Sea,
:: Wilderness Hex Crawl – In the Heart of the Unknown,
:: Dungeon/network generator – In the Heart of the Delve & Dangerous

Monopoly Hex Flower Game Engine | PART 2

This follows on from my thought experiment of  – can you Hex Flower up the game Monopoly? Link

  A complete PDF version can be found here.

These a tarted up UK/US versions. The first set are probably closer to the long term stats in Monopoly,

where:

… but I can’t help liking the look of this second set (again UK/US versions):

 

Important:
This work is not affiliated or endorsed in any way by the owners of the board game Monopoly.

– – –

Me on DriveThru; at the moment I’m mainly pimping my procedural:
:: High Seas ‘Hex Crawl’ – In the Heart of the Sea,
:: Wilderness Hex Crawl – In the Heart of the Unknown,
:: Dungeon/network generator – In the Heart of the Delve & Dangerous

Monopoly Hex Flower Game Engine

A little thought experiment … can you Hex Flower up the game Monopoly?

Roughed this out – and I’m not sure about the split hexes yet (and the train stations need work). I would fancy this whole thing up, but there is something else I should be doing … better get back to that then! 

Alternative Monopoly game board:  

Colours came out a bit funny so here’s a key:
Left column: Yellow; Free Parking; Orange
Second column: C.Chest; Visiting Jail; Chance; Taxes
Middle column: Pink; Brown; Go; Light Blue; Dark Blue
Third column: Utilities; C.Chest; Train Stations; Chance;
Right column: Green; Go to Jail; Red 

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Me on DriveThru; at the moment I’m mainly pimping my procedural:
:: High Seas ‘Hex Crawl’ – In the Heart of the Sea,
:: Wilderness Hex Crawl – In the Heart of the Unknown,
:: Dungeon/network generator – In the Heart of the Delve & Dangerous

Random Social Interaction Hex Flower Generator

Download a (readable)  .pdf version

Background
I’ve been interested in making a random social interaction generator for a little while, perhaps part of a random mystery generator. Lot’s of ideas but nothing concrete. So, recently, I saw a few things that made me think of this … it might need some work, but I figured I’d put it out there and get some feedback.

The main idea is to use a Hex Flower (HF) as a frame to hold NPCs in place and then use rules to link them. So, in this case the HF is doing something a little different to my ‘normal’ HFs.

Idea
I had a go at typing this idea up in WordPress’s ‘WYSIWYG’ editor, but life is too short for that. So, here is an example of a social Interaction HF generated using this method, taken from the pdf document:

Of course, people are free to create social interaction types that fit their game.

So, could this be done just using normal random tables – sure. But, I quite like that the information is presented visually as a sort of flow/information diagram.

If you want to see how this is done here’s a screen clip of the template, but a more readable and fuller  .pdf version is PWYW on DriveThruRPG.

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Me on DriveThruDriveThru.

Planar Compass 2 | 48 hrs to go on Kickstarter

I’m collaborating on Issue 2 of Planar Compass for Zine Quest 3, which is written for OSE.

 LINK

Video review of Issue 1 on Questing Beast