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 …
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Questing Beast review | Planar Compass 2
Leave a reply
Category Archives: Maps
Analogue ‘Fog of War’ hack … | Jigsaw over map
Place an upside-down jigsaw over the map and remove the pieces as necessary to reveal the map:
That’s it
EDIT: Reddit feedback (i) number the backs of the jigsaw pieces for easy re-assembly;
(ii) don’t use this idea if you don’t like it
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Me on DriveThruRPG
Grimbo Grotto | Christmas Farcical Horror Oneshot
T’was the night before a crisp mass snowfall and nothing was stirring,
except a drunken ‘potty-mouthed’ were-reindeer high on psychedelic mushrooms
Featuring:
‘Rude Olf’ – thanks to James V West for letting me use this image – http://doomslakers.blogspot.com
Were-reindeer cult
Neurotic gnomes running a clandestine psychedelic mushroom harvesting operation
Candy Cane Golem
Gift Wrapping Monster
Mimic Presents
Giant Putrid Gravy-Spewing Undead Turkey
Tree Ent Christmas Tree hostage
Adventure Preview:
Some reviews:
1 x Blog: diplomatist2.blogspot.com/2020/12/gaming
2 x DrivethruRPG: drivethrurpg.com/product_review
Also Judges Choice winner for the Reddit OSR X-mas (Santa Panic) one page dungeon contest
PDF Download:
A better more readable version of this can be downloaded from here (along with the original 4 page version of this adventure): 
Grimbo Grotto
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I sense a puzzle trap in this … | ‘Missing Area Paradox’ puzzles
I sense a puzzle trap in this:
The Missing Area Paradox objects (like rooms) seem to appear and disappear upon rotation
– – –
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
Grimbo Grotto – 2021 One Page Dungeon Contest | a Christmas Farcical Horror Adventure
It twas the night before a crisp mass snowfall and nothing was stirring,
except a drunken ‘potty-mouthed’ were-reindeer high on psychedelic mushrooms
2021 One Page Dungeon Contest Entry – Going a bit more ‘traditional’ this year with an actual map (!) – so no Hex Flower and forget crazy Rubik’s cube random dungeons etc … I never do well in this ‘competition‘, but that’s not the point I … (yes?)
Christmas in July any one?
Featuring:
‘Rude Olf’ – thanks to James V West for letting me use this image – http://doomslakers.blogspot.com
:: Were-reindeer cult
:: Evil gnomes running a clandestine psychedelic mushroom harvesting operation
:: Candy Cane Golem
:: Gift Wrapping Monster
:: Mimic Presents
:: Giant Putrid Gravy-Spewing Undead Turkey
:: Tree Ent Christmas Tree hostage
Adventure Preview:
A better more readable version of this can be downloaded from here (along with the original 4 page version of this adventure): Grimbo Grotto
– – –
Me on DriveThruDriveThru; at the moment I’m mainly pimping this ^ and my procedural High Seas ‘Hex Crawl’ – In the Heart of the Sea, and my procedural Wilderness Hex Crawl – In the Hear of the Unknown.
Insect Crawl | Procedural Method for Insect Colony Point Crawl
Update: When this blog was young, the below was posted as a blog ‘page’ and not as a blog ‘post’. I’ve deleted the ‘page’ and prefer to keep it on my blog as a blog post.
A template can be downloaded from here
This template is designed as a ‘point crawl’. The chambers and passages can be any shape or size, may go up, down or undulate. The map can be imagined as seen from above (e.g. Example 1) or from the side, in profile (e.g. Example 2).
Method:
It should be fairly self explanatory from the template alone, but just for completeness:
(i) Template
Start with the template below (i.e. the colony has an entrance level + 4 Zones)
(ii) No. Chambers
Roll number of chambers in each Zone. The idea being that the monsters get tougher in the later zones.
(iii) No. Passages
Roll number of passages connecting the chambers, i.e. = No. of chambers + D5
(iv) No. Concealed Entrances
Roll number passageway entrances which are concealed (D12-10, i.e. uncommon)
(v) Join up the Dots
Join up the chambers using the number of passages
Colony Template
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Example 1 – Riverbank Giant Ant Colony (above view):
The ‘faded’ circles are chamber not used from the template (e.g. Zone 2 only has 3 out the possible 5 chambers). These could be Tippexed out, or ignored. Please also ignore the L and N, these are artefacts left over from another project! If you must know, these are where the colony connected to other systems.
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Example 2 – Mound Giant Ant Colony (side view)
Note – This is the same as Example 1, but showing a different arranging of passages
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Example 3 – Giant clay wasp nest clinging high up on a cave wall (side view)
Note – This example generated fewer chambers and one concealed entrance (shown in green)
Suggestions
:: Don’t get too hung up on the procedural ‘rules’, nothing will get broken
:: Start by making a path from the entrance to the Queen
:: Don’t make a path to the Queen that is a straight line (… boring!)
:: Don’t make it necessary to pass through every room to get to the Queen (… a drag)
:: Ensure there is more than one path that leads to the Queen (… more interesting)
:: Ensure the shortest path to the queen is not too long or too short – aim for 5 to 7 chambers
Random Encounters
The above is an off-shoot from a more complicated (probably a too complicated) project. If people are interested, then I’ll add some random tables!
Edit: For now you could use this Excel sheet to generate random encounters: Link
Preview:
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.
Video review of Issue 1 on Questing Beast
What floats your Astral boat ? | Planar Compass 2
This is now Live on Kickstarter
I’m excited to let people know that I’m collaborating on Issue 2 of Planar Compass for Zine Quest 3, which is written for OSE.
I’m working on some Hex Flower goodness to navigate/traverse the astral sea and on a living dungeon.
Background
See Issue 1 (where it all began with Zine Quest 2)
For a video review of Issue 1, please see Questing Beast
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Grimbo Grotto | Christmas Farcical Horror Adventure
It twas the night before a crisp mass snowfall and nothing was stirring,
except a drunken ‘potty-mouthed’ were-reindeer high on psychedelic mushrooms
A system neutral 4 page one-shot adventure with a farcical X-Mas horror vibe
Featuring:
‘Rude Olf’ – thanks to James V West for letting me use this image – http://doomslakers.blogspot.com
:: Were-reindeer cult
:: Evil gnomes running a clandestine psychedelic mushroom harvesting operation
:: Candy Cane Golem
:: Gift Wrapping Monster
:: Mimic Presents
:: Giant Putrid Gravy-Spewing Undead Turkey
:: Tree Ent Christmas Tree hostage
Adventure Preview:
It’s PWYW and can be downloaded from here: Grimbo Grotto
– – –
Me on DriveThruDriveThru; at the moment I’m mainly pimping this ^ and my procedural High Seas ‘Hex Crawl’ – In the Heart of the Sea, and my procedural Wilderness Hex Crawl – In the Hear of the Unknown.
Battleships as a template for a mystery game | Scenic Dunnsmouth village set up
TL;DR
I wanted to make a procedural mystery RPG template – it didn’t go that well. To make myself feel better, and to test the idea, I applied the bones of the idea to an existing procedural mystery, and in the end in effect got this:
Background – Battleships dungeon
In the past, I had an idea for making a quick dungeon using the Battleships board game as a template for a Grid-Crawl. A pdf version of my Battleships dungeon can be found here: Link
In essence, you can make a two level 20 room dungeon/network that would have the connectivity that looked something like this:
But in reality, it is generated (and looks) like this (red and green pegs are white pegs):
New idea – Procedural mystery game / NPC social network
More recently, I wondered if this method could be adapted to make a procedural mystery game, or a procedural NPC (anti)social network.
I wondered if the first grid could be used to connect 10 spaces or people, and the second grid used to provide information about those spaces or people.
That is, the first grid would define the interconnectivity of the 10 spaces/people (as per my Battleships Dungeon idea). But, the second grid would be used to define if the space/person has a resource/clue (e.g. white peg) or has/is a threat (red peg), or some other social element. The position of the peg could be used to define the magnitude of the clue/threat etc.
The specific project I had in mind got bogged down …
:O|
Applying the concept to the setup of the Scenic Dunnsmouth village
I then realised that the LotFP module Scenic Dunnsmouth is a kind of mystery and is procedural. So I wondered if I could adapt my idea to capture that subject-matter.
Due to the specific nature of the module, I had to add some extra granularity to the procedural method. The idea I originally had in mind was far simpler.
Of course, this method using the Battleships game can never faithfully reproduce all the aspect of the original, for example the D4 used to set the threat level in the original makes the original more swingish than this Battleships-based method. This could be replicated better, but that’s going too far down the rabbit hole!
For example, I did think about adding the extra requirement that the peg in the church needed to be in a middle hole for it to be infected, to better reflect the probability in the original (but again, this is probably going too far).
Anyway, here is my adapation of the Scenic Dunnsmouth village set up using the Battleships game:
Using the Battleships Board game to setup the Scenic Dunnsmouth village
A more readable pdf version of ‘Battleship Scenic Dunnsmouth’ with expanded examples can be found here: Link
Requirements
- Two ‘Battleships’ board game 10 × 10 grids
- A good handful of roughly 50:50 mixture of red and white pegs
- Scenic Dunnsmouth; Lamentations of the Flame Princess Module LFP 0015
Placement
Lefthand Grid (LHG)
1. Place the 5 ships on the 10 × 10 grid as per the standard ‘Battleships’ rules
2. Add a random peg in each column, but avoiding the ships
3. Add a random peg in each ship
Righthand Grid (RHG)
4. Place the 5 ships on the board as per the standard ‘Battleships’ rules
5. Add a random peg in each column, no need to avoid the ships this time
e.g.:
Interpretation – the village
LHG
- Time Cube pg 8 – the peg in the 5-hole ship
- Church pg 17 – the peg in the 4-hole ship (if the peg is red = church is infected)
- “Red Kicker” pg 20 – the peg in the 1st 3-hole ship if placed horizontally; otherwise it’s a home* (or is absent)
to work out the “red kicker roll” take 6 and add the modifier below:
if a white peg is in the 1st hole = +1; 2nd hole = +2; 3rd hole = +3;
if it’s a red peg, the modifier is doubled (essentially this equates to a D6+6), i.e.:
- “Black kicker” pg 20 – as per the “Red Kicker” but using the peg in the 2nd 3-hole ship
- Boat house pg 18 – the peg in the 2-hole ship; nearest home defines the suit of the ace as per normal rules
- Homes – the pegs not in ships (if the peg is red = home is infected)
- ‘Dunnsmouth Dice Score’ pg 10 – this equates to 90 minus 5 per red pegs in the LHG
RHG
- To find out who is living in each home, look in the same column but on the RHG
- The ‘card number’ is the row number corresponding to where the peg is, i.e. C = 3 and E = 5 etc.
… however, if the peg is in a ship, then this is overruled and it’s a royal card where:
Jack = peg in a 3-hole ship
Queen = peg in a 4-hole ship
King = peg in a 5-hole ship
- If the peg is red, the ‘card’ is a red suit, if the peg is white the ‘card’ is a black suit
- If the sum of the two numbers (assuming C = 3 etc.) is odd, then it’s a pointy suit (diamonds or spades) if even, it’s a roundy suit (hearts or clubs)
- * = if there are two homes in the same column on the LHG (due to one or more of the “Kickers” being homes) then the procedure for assigning a card number/suit is as above, but the reference numbers are with reference to the LHG and not the RHG (i.e. to avoid repeats) – or this home is derelict.
- If a duplicate home is obtained, then this corresponds to a “black joker”, “red joker”, “rules” and then “advertisement” cards pg 91; or the home is derelict; or move the card number up/down 1 unit
Personalities
- Spider pg 12 will be located as per the standard rules; HD equal to number of LHS red pegs
- Uncle Ivanovik pg 14 will be located are as per the standard rules and will be infected if his peg is red
– His level will equate to the position of the peg in the LHG 5-hole ship (counting left to right or top to bottom); +1 if not infected
– He will be doing an activity equating to the summing of the position of the peg in the 4-hole and 2-hole ships (counting left to right or top to bottom); -1 if infected - Magda p16 will be located as per the standard rules and will be infected if her peg is red
– Her level is the number of LHG white pegs divided by 3 and rounded; and -1 if infected
Scenic Dunnsmouth Map
If redrawn (but there is no need to), then the Scenic Dunnsmouth village would look something like this:
SDN: 90 – (6 × 5) = 60 yellow/orange = infected
Spider: 6HD
Magda’s level: (9/3)-1 = 2
Uncle I’s Level: 3+1 = 4; and is doing activity: 2+1+1 = 4
Again, a more readable pdf version of ‘Battleship Scenic Dunnsmouth’ with expanded examples can be found here: Link
– – –
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
Collaborative Audio Dungeon III | locations 21 to 30
During my self-imposed blogging break over Christmas, I started an Anchor podcast.
Anyway, I recently thought it would be neat to make a collaborative ‘Audio Dungeon’, so here is Part III.
The idea being that people leave an audio message of 1 minute or less (preferably using the Anchor record feature) detailing something found in a fantasy dungeon (whatever that means to you), e.g. room, location, encounter, statue, fresco etc.
If you are interested you can find out more (and record a message) here:
>>link <<
Rules (for want of a better word):
- By making a submission you agree to make the content Creative Commons
- The message is for a fantasy dungeon
- Each message is 1 minute or shorter
- It’s probably useful to think of the submission as the audio equivalent of ‘box text’
If I get enough of these audio submissions, I’ll pull them together as a Creative Commons Audio Dungeon. I’m imagining a dungeon of audio ‘box text’ which people can them populate with their own encounters, perhaps from random tables.
At least one listener has pointed out that while this idea is fun in its own right, it might also be a helpful resource for anyone with a visual impairment/disability.
– – –
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
Collaborative Audio Dungeon II | locations 11 to 20
During my self-imposed blogging break over Christmas, I started an Anchor podcast.
Anyway, I recently thought it would be neat to make a collaborative ‘Audio Dungeon’, so here is Part II.
The idea being that people leave an audio message of 1 minute or less (preferably using the Anchor record feature) detailing something found in a fantasy dungeon (whatever that means to you), e.g. room, location, encounter, statue, fresco etc.
If you are interested you can find out more (and record a message) here:
>>link <<
Rules (for want of a better word):
- By making a submission you agree to make the content Creative Commons
- The message is for a fantasy dungeon
- Each message is 1 minute or shorter
- It’s probably useful to think of the submission as the audio equivalent of ‘box text’
If I get enough of these audio submissions, I’ll pull them together as a Creative Commons Audio Dungeon. I’m imagining a dungeon of audio ‘box text’ which people can them populate with their own encounters, perhaps from random tables.
At least one listener has pointed out that while this idea is fun in its own right, it might also be a helpful resource for anyone with a visual impairment/disability.
– – –
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
Collaborative Audio Dungeon
During my self-imposed blogging break over Christmas, I started an Anchor podcast (that doesn’t count as Blogging right?).
Anyway, I recently thought it would be neat to make a collaborative ‘Audio Dungeon’.
The idea being that people leave an audio message of 1 minute or less (preferably using the Anchor record feature) detailing something found in a fantasy dungeon (whatever that means to you), e.g. room, location, encounter, statue, fresco etc.
If you are interested you can find out more (and record a message) here:
>> Episode 12 – Audio Dungeon | not that one <<
Rules (for want of a better word):
- By making a submission you agree to make the content Creative Commons
- The message is for a fantasy dungeon
- Each message is 1 minute or shorter
- It’s probably useful to think of the submission as the audio equivalent of ‘box text’
If I get enough of these audio submissions, I’ll pull them together as a Creative Commons Audio Dungeon. I’m imagining a dungeon of audio ‘box text’ which people can them populate with their own encounters, perhaps from random tables.
At least one listener has pointed out that while this idea is fun in its own right, it might also be a helpful resource for anyone with a visual impairment/disability.
– – –
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
DMG Map drawn in my Simple Excel Mapper
It’s been a little while since I updated and mentioned my Simple Excel mapper.
The mapper is PWYW on DriveThruRPG: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/282764/Simple-Excel-Mapper
Example
To show what this simple mapper can do, I thought I’d have a go at recreating the blank map in the classic 1e Dungeon Masters Guide (DMG):
Here’s a detail shot:
Here’s an example of a customisable popup:
Here are some icons you could add to the map:
Here’s a (oldish) demo video of the mapper:
– – –
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
Seven Days in the Duchy | a campaign weather resource
Incidentally, it turns out this is my 100th blog post.
I listened to Michael “Chgowiz” podcast on weather (link), and thought it might be useful to prepare a live 7 day forecast for some Köppen climate weather classifications.
Please see this post: https://goblinshenchman.blogspot.com/2019/11/seven-days-in-duchy.html
Screen-capture:
Here’s a sample screen capture of a 7 day forecast for a Desert Campaign:
Premise:
The idea is that a DM can use the selected real-world forecast to be the actual weather in the DM’s campaign world. The DM need only pick a climate that best matches their campaign world and use that. Since the forecasts are live predictions, they will track real-world weather, and as such, they will be up-to-date and ‘realistic’.
So why am I using Blogger for this post? This is because I couldn’t get WordPress to run the weather scripts … my IT skills are baseline …
– – –
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
‘You sank my BattleDungeon’ … | Procedural Grid-Crawl Dungeon using the Battleships game as a template
An idea for making a quick dungeon using Battleships as a template for a Grid-Crawl.
A more readable pdf version can be found here: Link
Battleships Dungeon
Using the Battleships game as a template to procedurally generate a
20 room, 2 level (Grid Crawl) dungeon
Method
This is a method and explanation of how to use the Battleships game as a template to make a procedural dungeon map in about 5 minutes. Of course, this could be any kind of point crawl, not just a ‘dungeon’. A simple one page method (without the explanations) is given at the end of this document for easy use.
:: Step 1
Start with two blank ‘Battleships Maps’ (probably best to renumber the top line ‘1 to 10’ rather than ‘A to J’), e.g.:
Left Grid Right Grid
This can be done with the physical game i.e. with the plastic pieces etc., or by simply using paper grids. The Left Grid is the entry level and the Right Grid is the second level of the dungeon.
:: Step 2
Place the ‘ships’ on the grids (as if you were playing the Battleships game). If doing this on paper grids, just shade the squares, e.g.:
Left Grid Right Grid
:: Step 3
In each of the Grids put a Red Peg in the diagonal positions, except for the top leftmost cell (i.e. put these in positions 2;2, 3;3, and 4;4 etc.), e.g.:
Left Grid Right Grid
These Red Pegs are simply a visual reminder that these rooms do not connect to themselves.
The START location is on the Left Grid in cell 1;1 (marked with an S). The BOSS encounter (or adventure goal, quest item etc.) is located on the Right Grid in cell 1;1 (marked on with a B).
The battleships are being used in this method to introduce an element of chaos, and to force the DM out of any unconscious bias in later peg placement.
:: Step 4
Put a White Peg in each Column somewhere, i.e. where there is a gap (shown as light shaded Blue Pegs below), e.g.:
Left Grid Right Grid
:: Step 5
Look across each Row, if a Row does not have a White Peg in it somewhere, then add one (shown below as light Green Pegs), e.g.:
Left Grid Right Grid
In the example above, this would be in Rows 6, 8 and 10 on the Left Grid; and on the Right Grid that would be Rows 4, 7, 9 and 10. If doing this on paper the Green Dots could represent secret doors. However, doing this might make the dungeon appear more linear looking to the players. To increase interconnectivity, hence ‘jaquaying-the-dungeon’, simply add a few more pegs (e.g. 3) at random.
:: Step 6
Finally, remove one Red Peg from each Grid. Optionally, consider replacing this with a White Peg (to be visually distinct). Below this is shown as a red X, e.g.:
Left Grid Right Grid
Please note: the map looks busy in this example because I’m using colours to aid explanation. In reality, you’d just have Red and White Pegs. The red X represents the point where the two levels interconnect. So in the above example, this could be stairs going from Room 4, Left Grid to Room 7, Right Grid. Of course, there is nothing stopping you adding more level interconnections. Again, this will help in ‘jaquaying-the-dungeon’. For simple bookkeeping, remove the pegs from matching positions e.g. 4;4 Left Grid leads to 4;4 Right Grid, and 7;7 Grid Left leads to 7;7 Right Grid. The connections do not need to be stairs, they could be tunnels etc. If doing this on paper, a mega dungeon can be made easily by simply using multiple paper grids and interconnecting them in this way.
What is this gibberish?
Here’s a link to my initial post about Grid-Crawls, hopefully that helps, else see the below example: Link
Below is a brief example of how to navigate a Grid-Crawl map:
The example does not consider any encounters in the rooms etc.
• The PCS start in Room 1 on the Left Grid, i.e. corresponding to Colum 1; Row 1. This position is marked with an S on the map.
• The DM Looks across Row 1 and down Column 1. There is a Non Red Peg in the 5 and 9 positions (see arrows), i.e.:
Left Grid
This means Room 1 connects to Rooms 5 and 9.
• The PCs decide to go to Room 5. In Room 5 the DM Looks across Row 5 and down Column 5. It can be seen that there are Non Red Pegs in the 1, 3, and 4 positions, i.e.:
Left Grid
From this it can be seen that Room 5 connects to Rooms 1, 3, and 4.
• The PCs then go to Room 4. The DM Looks across Row 4 and down Column 4. There is a Non Red Peg in the 5 and 7 positions, and a red X at the 4 position, i.e.:
Left Grid Right Grid
From this it can be seen that Room 4 connects to Rooms 5 and 7. Also, Room 4 Left Grid connects to Room 7 Right Grid, e.g. as marked by the red X on each grid.
• The PCs therefore can now move from the Left Grid (upper level) to the Right Grid (lower level) if they choose to …
• And so on.
Map
For the sake of completeness, I’ve gone to the effort of drawing out the Grid-Crawl above as a Point Crawl (please see maps below). I’ve done this just to show what kind of map this method generates. To be fair, part of the point of this system is for the DM not to have to draw a map (unless of course that brings you joy). The players are free to map as they will, and the DM might enjoy seeing their work :O|
The second map uses the option for secret passages as mentioned in Step 5 (i.e. for the Green Dots)
These point-crawl maps were made using: https://csacademy.com/app/graph_editor
Quick Method – Battleships Dungeon
Step 1
Start with two blank ‘Battleships Maps’ (probably best to renumber the top line ‘1 to 10’ rather than ‘A to J’).
Step 2
Place the ‘ships’ on each grid (as if you were playing the Battleships game). If doing this on paper grids, just shade in the squares.
Step 3
In each of the grids put a Red Peg in the diagonal positions, except for the top leftmost cells; i.e. at positions 2;2, 3;3, and 4;4 etc. In the paper method use a solid ‘dot’ in place of the peg.
Step 4
Put a White Peg in each Column somewhere, i.e. where there is a gap. In the paper method use an open (unshaded) ‘dot’ in place of the peg.
Step 5
Look across each Row, if a Row does not have a White Peg in it somewhere, then add one (these might represent secret passages).
Optionally, add a few extra White Pegs at random to increase same level interconnectivity.
Step 6
Finally, remove one Red Peg from each Grid. Optionally, consider replacing this with a White Peg (to be visually distinct). In the paper method you might put this down as an X.
Optionally, add an extra interconnectivity pathway between the grids (i.e. dungeon levels) in the same fashion.
– – –
Me on DriveThruDriveThru; at the moment I’m mainly pimping my procedural High Seas ‘Hex Crawl’ – In the Heart of the Sea.
Tuesday Toot!! | H’Excel a random ‘Hex Crawl’ generator (and editor) using Excel
Tuesday Toot – G+ is closing closed. When it was alive things happened. Things unexpected. Great things. Whilst my creative output is only modest, I thought I’d hold something up into the living light, something that came about purely because G+ existed … This is a toot to G+.
Background:
On a four hour train journey I decided to try something new. Rather amazingly, the idea worked first time. Since then H’Excel has had a bunch of iterative tweaks, like staggering the cells in Excel.
H’Excel can do a bunch of things (see features below), but at its core it is a random Hex Crawl terrain generator and editor.
Here’s a demo video:
The key features are explained in the below demo video:
Download: Link
Features:
- Randomly generates a ‘Hex’ map (i.e. squares in a hexagonal array)
- Global settings – raise or lower the terrain of the whole map
- Regional settings – raise or lower the terrain in a portion of the map
- Screen capture mode (‘Snap Map’)
- Edit mode – generate a map and tweak it, or build the map from scratch
- Customisable random encounter tables
- Refresh encounter (but keep the map the same)
- In Hex locations, for encounter locations etc.
– – –
Me on DriveThruDriveThru; at the moment I’m mainly pimping my procedural High Seas ‘Hex Crawl’ – In the Heart of the Sea.
Puzzle complex | … escape before it floods
Not my usual thing, but I made a puzzle complex (in three colour ways):
If you are interested you can download a higher resolution .pdf from here
Excel Mapper
This free Excel mapper was used to make the map part
Demo video of the mapper
– – –
Me on DriveThruDriveThru; please check out my procedural High Seas ‘Hex Crawl’ – In the Heart of the Sea.
I sense mapping opportunities | Crayola Light Up Tracing Pad
Background
Came across this. One of the first things that occurred to me was … mapping!
1. Insert gridded (hex or even isometric) paper.
2. Place blank paper over the top.
3. Start mapping.
Demo video of the device:
That’s it.
Variants
If the My Little Pony colour scheme doesn’t appeal, then there is even a Star Wars version:
There of course needs to be a D&D version …
– – –
Me on DriveThruDriveThru; at the moment I’m mainly pimping my procedural High Seas ‘Hex Crawl’ – In the Heart of the Sea.
Simple Excel Mapper update | Icons added
Tuesday Toot – G+ is closing closed. When it was alive things happened. Things unexpected. Great things. Whilst my creative output is only modest, I thought I’d hold something up into the living light, something that came about purely because G+ existed … This is a toot to G+.Simple dungeon mapper
This is a throwback and an update. This is a simple mapper I made using Excel and its ‘conditional formatting’ option. It’s basic but free.
I’ve updated this mapper to include a few icons. It’s a thing I’ve been meaning to do for a while.
Original Video Demo
This video keeps chugging on YouTube, it consistently gets 10 to 20 hits a day.
Update: Icons added
Basically, any image can be placed on the map, so I incorporated some CC ones, made them small to use as icons:
These icons allow a greater deal of customisation. Feel free to use your own.
Download:
Screen Capture:
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Me on DriveThruDriveThru; at the moment I’m mainly pimping my procedural High Seas ‘Hex Crawl’ – In the Heart of the Sea.
Goblin's Henchman 