RPGaDay 2025 07: Journey

Today’s entry for what has become RandomTableADay for me is on the topic “Journey”.

A few years back, I read the Welsh Piper’s post on Hex-based Campaign Design (Part 1). In it, The Welsh Piper speaks of efficient hex map design, referencing an old, lost-to-the-internet post by Greywulf, on a Microlite d20 site. This lost article is called “The Lazy Gamer’s Guide to World Building”, and I could find an old copy on Scribd. Greywulf argued to generate seven three-mile hexes, putting an adventure in each, and just expanding the next ring of hexes around wherever PCs move to. The Welsh Piper, in turn, expands on that idea by making 25-mile hexes with 5-mile subhexes, and the Part 1 post is all about generating that terrain. The idea being that one 25-mile atlas hex should be more than enough adventure to start with.

Welsh Piper’s method is to distribute terrain types yourself on hexes, using a set distribution. Half of the 18 whole hexes are a primary terrain, 6 are a secondary terrain, and three are either tertiary or wildcard. Their argument for referee distribution rather than random generation is that random generation will sometimes end up with quite unrealistic results.

Around that same time, I ran across the Hex Flower Cookbook—a procedural generation system with a “memory” of sorts. Golbin’s Henchman provides a quick overview, but quickly said: you make a hex map with outcomes to generate. While generating, you “travel” over the terrain, so that the previous result influences the next result. That way, it’s unlikely you’ll end up with a single mountain in the middle of plains, as you’ll travel through a hex of hills first in your terrain generation.

So, for today, I wanted to try out making a hex flower for Welsh Piper’s generation method. I chose to make one for the forest hex type, to see how it would work. I’ll have to try it out a few times to see what it produces. Below is the final result! If you use it, let me know what you think over on Bluesky.

Look forward to more RPGaDay posts throughout the month!