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Post by tetramorph on Dec 20, 2014 13:09:03 GMT -6
If you want to create a random map, find Dave Wesley and Ross Maker's game "Source of the Nile." It has rules for random terrain generation including rivers that make sense, lakes, waterfalls, and taking the surrounding terrain into account. I had never heard of this game. Looks really cool, thanks for the clue, gronan. makofan, when you referred to it as "See Africa and Die," I, well, got the feel immediately (sounds perfect for our sort of gaming!) and also laughed out-loud for a good while! Thanks
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Post by tetramorph on Dec 20, 2014 13:12:33 GMT -6
@droll, another EXALT! out to you for your pro-board shui.
I am going to be spending the next waking hours trying to wrap my tiny brain around that amazing series of posts.
BTW, did he ever actually get that stuff up on-line as its own free-standing offering?
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Post by jmccann on Dec 20, 2014 18:33:09 GMT -6
If you want to create a random map, find Dave Wesley and Ross Maker's game "Source of the Nile." It has rules for random terrain generation including rivers that make sense, lakes, waterfalls, and taking the surrounding terrain into account. Thanks for reminding me of that. I think I also recall a magazine article extending SOTN terrain generation for fantasy terrain types. I can't remember if it was in the Dragon or some other magazine, sometime in the late 70s - early 80s. EDIT: The Dragon #24, April 1979. It is by none other than J. Eric Holmes and appears to add lost civilizations (the article's title is "Lost Civilizations"). The civilizations have a pulpy feel.
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Post by geoffrey on Dec 20, 2014 20:34:14 GMT -6
I think I also recall a magazine article extending SOTN terrain generation for fantasy terrain types. I can't remember if it was in the Dragon or some other magazine, sometime in the late 70s - early 80s. EDIT: The Dragon #24, April 1979. It is by none other than J. Eric Holmes and appears to add lost civilizations (the article's title is "Lost Civilizations"). The civilizations have a pulpy feel. Thanks for the reference. That issue of The Dragon has one of my two favorite covers: Here's my other favorite, by M. A. R. Barker ( The Dragon #4, December 1976):
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Post by aldarron on Dec 21, 2014 20:57:04 GMT -6
The "Wilderness Architect" article in Fight On! #2 attempts to do the same thing as Source of the Nile (aka "See Africa and Die") I get the feeling there are some readers here who don't know, so I suppose someone should also mention that Dave Arneson wrote up detailed guidelines for generating hexmaps for OD&D back in 1977 in The First Fantasy Campaign. They are on pages 26 and 27 of the 1980 reprint. That, and the map tables for Lake Gloomin also in the FFC, are the basis of the map tables in Champions of ZED.
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Post by tetramorph on Dec 21, 2014 21:12:50 GMT -6
aldarron, thank you very much for this. Until recently I did not have access to a copy and sense I've been throwing myself around trying to come up with something I hadn't thought to go and read it! I will avail myself of it shortly.
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Post by ffilz on Dec 22, 2014 11:14:58 GMT -6
If you want to create a random map, find Dave Wesley and Ross Maker's game "Source of the Nile." It has rules for random terrain generation including rivers that make sense, lakes, waterfalls, and taking the surrounding terrain into account. I had never heard of this game. Looks really cool, thanks for the clue, gronan. makofan, when you referred to it as "See Africa and Die," I, well, got the feel immediately (sounds perfect for our sort of gaming!) and also laughed out-loud for a good while! Thanks There was a review of Source of the Nile in Dragon 20 by Gary Gygax titled "See Africa and Die!", if that wasn't the origin of the phrase, it certainly popularized it. Frank
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Post by makofan on Dec 22, 2014 16:09:37 GMT -6
Yes, I was quoting that title
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skars
Level 6 Magician
Posts: 407
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Post by skars on Jan 12, 2015 14:34:07 GMT -6
According to the rules for the game, the area of the mapboard is approximately 13,200 sq miles.
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Post by spacemonkeydm on Mar 3, 2015 16:16:54 GMT -6
So another question as I have on my second game using the Survival map. How big are the villages/ towns or cities? I know there is no where written down, but was wondering what other people decided on. I can picture them very small cause in a world where I can run into random giants and dragons I would guess mortality would be high. So I would think of them as small fortified towns with a farms with in site of the wall. maybe a couple thousand at the most. What did other people come up with?
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Post by tetramorph on Mar 3, 2015 17:34:39 GMT -6
spacemonkeydm, I would use the same rules as that of randomly populating a barony for a character. Each barony gets 1d4X2 villages and each village is 1d4 X 100 in population. I understand population to be conscript-able, male adults. So, for a total population I would multiply by about 5.
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Post by spacemonkeydm on Mar 3, 2015 21:49:46 GMT -6
spacemonkeydm, I would use the same rules as that of randomly populating a barony for a character. Each barony gets 1d4X2 villages and each village is 1d4 X 100 in population. I understand population to be conscript-able, male adults. So, for a total population I would multiply by about 5. Great I like random makes it better.
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