[Prep is Play] Creating a hex map with Shadowdark 

COASTER dude! lol

thanks for doing this. it is nice to see how you handled the water in your view.

Oh, yeah, I used to watch a lot of WASD20 in the past, too ^^

I find my first thoughts to be the most creative so I like to jot down those in the moment connections that come to mind when generating a map, like your borrow mound and Oracle, to create a rumors & legends lists. And like you said, you don't have to figure out if they are true or not now.

Shadowdark has great tables of randomness. The thing is, it isn't the only game that offers that. I have several books that also have built into the book some great randomizers as well. It's also a routine feature of a lot of solo gaming books. I recently discovered Ruin Masters. Pity that one appeared and then disappeared. But, it IS a good example of a design that features a good randomizer element. I also like Shadowdark just for how it was actually printed. I think some of the more recent D&D books are a lot of fluff, pointless wordy garbage and stupid page inflating nonsense. D&D has not had a DMG worth buying since AD&D 1st edition.

I don't really get how the "new hex" and "hex terrain" tables are constructed. As in there are some interactions between the rules that lead to behavior that I would question. I thought I could make a set of lists that would work better, that y'all can feel free to use. The "hex terrain" table being circular means that there's a significantly reduced chance for 7 of the possible combinations of terrain touching: -- swamp and ocean -- grassland and ocean -- grassland and mountain -- forest/jungle and mountain -- forest/jungle and desert/arctic -- river/coast and desert/arctic -- river/coast and swamp I don't really see the logic behind what these 7 are (except for the "river/coast and swamp", "river/coast and desert arctic", and "forest/jungle and desert/arctic" combos). I would have made it so that they are: -- mountain and ocean (you'd probably have a "coastal" i.e. cliffs or fjords in between.) -- mountain and swamp (the foot of a mountain is often sloped, and swamps require flat terrain.) -- river/coast and swamp (I feel like it would either drain into the river, or there wouldn't be a strip of traversable coast between the swamp and the water.) -- river/coast and desert/arctic (because of the river+desert combination.) -- forest/jungle and desert/arctic (simply because I feel grasslands (savannas) are less lush than forests/jungles.) -- forest/jungle and grasslands (not bad, this combination is now just forced.) -- ocean and grasslands (not bad, this combination is now just forced.) The *"hex terrain" table* would be: 2 = desert/arctic (1/36 to 1/36 for initial, and for subsequent 35/250-ish to 34/249-ish*) 3 = grasslands (12/36 to 2/36 for initial, and for subsequent 37/250-ish to 40/249-ish*) - highlands, prairie, savanna or shrubland, depending on safety. 4 = mountain (1/36 to 3/36 for initial, and for subsequent 35/250-ish to 34/249-ish*) 5, 6 = river/coastal (7/36 to 9/36 for initial, and for subsequent 36/250-ish to 36/249-ish*) - where coastal can be cliffs, fjords, beaches, lakes, peninsulas, ... 7-10 = forest/jungle (11/36 to 18/36 for initial, and for subsequent 37/250-ish to 37/249-ish*) 11 = ocean (2/36 to 2/36 for initial, and for subsequent 35/250-ish to 34/249-ish*) 12 = swamp (2/36 to 1/36 for initial, and for subsequent 35/250-ish to 34/249-ish*) And to compensate for the two "X and grasslands" combinations not actually being bad, I would use a "switch to grasslands or roll a new hex terrain" rule [on a 12] on the "new hex" table. That is, in addition to the "roll new hex terrain" rule [on a 2]. (*)= these above probabilities assume that there _is_ such a list item, with 1/36th probability. And the new probabilities would be shifted a bit more towards mountain and river/coastal than these numbers suggest. I was too lazy to analyze it fully with Markov Chains, to take into account that subsequent terrains are taking 0-2 steps from a distribution that's slightly skewed to grasslands. The numbers are calculated by assuming that you're taking 0-2 steps from a flat 36/252nd probability distribution. Also, "same as current terrain" has a 24/36th=2/3rd probability. That would lead to strips of terrain around 3 tiles long, making the spiral possibly very obvious. Maybe about 14/36 of the 24/36th could be changed to a "take terrain from tile to the inside of the spiral" rule. Which would make the *"new hex" table* something like: 2 = roll a new hex terrain (1/36 to 1/36) 3-5 = same as previous/current terrain (24/36 to 9/36) 6 = previous/current terrain +2 steps (9/36 to 5/36) 7-9 = same as terrain from tile to the side (0/36 to 15/36) 10, 11 = previous/current terrain +1 step (3/36 to 5/36) 12 = switch TO grasslands (or roll new hex terrain) (0/36 to 1/36) Or maybe the result for a 12 can be the rule: "if previous is forest/jungle or ocean, then switch to grasslands, else roll new hex terrain".

You’re throwing out so much great content! Love it!!

@ 34 mins, "Secret circle of wizards that meet at the cliffs on the coast". Aka wizards of the coast? How do you determine what type of monsters in the monster nest?

Maps videos was @WASD20 👍🏼

Dang I'm late the

Is he really sitting his coffee on the book?