One of my eternal pitfalls is being waaaay too ambitious when planning things; always aiming for megadungeons and 50×50 hexcrawls. Let’s try and start a bit smaller.
Castle Grief wrote about the 7 Hex Codex in their Substack, which is what has me thinking in this direction.
Ok, 7 hexes. Good start. However, just *one* feature per hex feels a bit sparse to me, so I zoomed in a little bit more (oh boy, here we go again with the scope creep, but okay):
Now we have 7 hexes per biome (and some border hexes in between, I’m skipping those for now). The approach I’m trying out, is:
- Define each hex with a punchy list of descriptors.
- The forest in the upper right is shadowy, misty, foreboding, the one to the left feels timeless, quiet, peaceful. Something like that.
- Combine these descriptors with the anchor list.
The anchor list are 7 elements to insert into this hex; one for each subhex. Arrange as desired. I’m not saying I’m breaking revolutionary new ground here, just that this is the framework I’m using at the moment. The 7 anchors are as follows:
- Civilization. A town, hamlet, farmstead or camp (or the ruins thereof).
- Dungeon. Signs of the past, decay, history. A tomb, mine, fort, cave.
- Mysticism. The spiritual or arcane. An altar, ritual site, wizard tower, monolith.
- Landmark. Natural majesty or man-made. Offers good vistas. Ridges, watchtowers, enormous trees.
- Danger. A monster lair, roams the region until stopped. Cave, ruins, nest – but can also be a humanoid faction.
- Economy. Utility of some sort. Herds of animals (sheep, horses etc.), ores at the surface, valuable herbs and plants.
- Heart of the Land. The most archetypal interpretation of this biome. Not necessarily at the heart of the hex. Difficult to travel through, but also contains its most valuable boons. The environment forces itself upon the adventurers in this hex. Think:
- The peak of a mountain range
- Deepest part of an ancient bog
- Windswept sea of chin-high grass
- Dune sea and sandstorms
- Ancient trees; eternal twilight under the canopy