Mini Map Time!

I messing with maps again.  On the left is your typical 8.5" x 11" sheet of paper and on the right I've started making mini maps on 4" x 6" blank index cards.  My map style remains the same, just smaller and a lot less area to color in.

Here's a close up of what this one looks like.  A crossroads area.  To the north you have the gallows where they hang the most vicious criminals.  The smaller house is where the hangman lives.  He's responsible for the upkeep of the gallows, making sure the ropes are in good condition and that no one cuts down the bodies until the proper time has passed.  The larger building is a tavern, the No Tomorrow tavern.  Four tables, a standing bar, two types of ale and no food.  It gets business from travelers passing through the crossroads, but its primary income is during the hanging days.  Crowds show up to watch and bring coin to drink the house specialty, the Execution's Ale.  Nothing special about it except the name.  One wall on the outside is dedicated to the people hung here and a list of their crimes.  The patrons piss all over the wall as a tribute.  

Map Time!

Finally.  Weekend.  It's been a few weeks of non-stop busy.  My mind is tired so I have no gas in the tank for writing, but I can draw a map.  That's the cool things about maps for me.  I can just zone out, watching something on TV (Ghost Adventures is my current addiction) and draw a map.  And I think coloring is a therapeutic exercise for most people.  So my therapy is maps.  He's the result of one session.  Road, woods, those scaled looking things are rock mounds and then a small mine inside a hill.  Tonight I think I'll be working on the next floor below.  I don't have anything written.  Except for that stump in the middle of the road north of the bridge.  For some reason I imagine it to be a blacken stump, a place where the locals gather to decide punishment or 'mountain justice'.

Evil Garden with a Free Download

I'm on vacation and prone to doing something completely irrational.  In this case I went through all the monster manuals, tomes, catalogs and bestiarys to form a comprehensive list of all the plants, fungi and rock creatures.  I tried to keep it to creatures, not constructs.  You will find piercers within, but you'll find nary a stone golem.   In all I scoured 22 different books.  I'm sure I missed one or two and maybe included one that shouldn't be on the list, but give a poor fellow a break.

The reason I did this you ask?  I was creating wilderness encounters and though it would be a good idea to have a listing of natural inhabitants that make it so dangerous.  I also made myself a makeshift random table as I created these encounters which is included at the bottom of the post and within the list.

A not on my manual selection, even though there is a lot of redundancy in the creatures (Shambling Mound leading the pack with 5 separate entries, the Treant, Quickwood and Yellow Musk Creeper each scoring four), but there are differences in each entry.  Not to mention whole books dedicated to the ecology of the so and so.  While I did include the AD&D version of monsters I did not list the 3.0 and 4.0 editions.  I have no idea why just didn't.

Hope this list is of some use to someone.  I plan on using it for another goofy vacation project I will post about soon.  And as promised, here is the random table I produced to come up with a variety of encounters.  The percentages may not make any sense, nor were they meant to.

Random Wilderness Table
01-08   Monster
09-20   Animal
21-28   Person
29-35   Item
36-41   Magic
41-47   Water
48-56   Roll Twice and Combine
56-61   Trap
61-71   Plant
72-77   Weather
78-83   After Scene (roll again)
84-87   Ruin
88-93   Empty Lair
94-97   Landmark
97-00   Grave

Wilderness Maps: Locations of Interest

When you finish your map and have all the forests, mountains, swamps, deserts and seas where you want them and after you string together all the villages, towns and forts you may think your done, but not quite. That vast space of wilderness needs a personality. It needs a history. This can be done by simply placing a few Locations of Interest in an area to tell the story.

Locations of Interest can be anything. They are the wildcard of the map. We know an upside down V is a mountain and a bump is a hill, but whatever symbol you use to denote a place of interest it can be anything. Since I am using a fantasy campaign as the example many of these places will be lairs of creatures, but these lairs can be more than a hole in the ground, a nest in a tree or a camp. These lairs can among the ruins of some ancient fortification. This centuries old fortification provides a glimpse into what was here before. A depth of place. Even if the GM never explains the ruins it sets a mood and gives the place relevance.

With the recent post at Jeff's Gameblog where a GM sets an experience point value for encounter certain locations, which I think is a fantastically obvious idea I never thought (slaps forehead). Locations of Interest can add a little boost a player's xp. Now when I create a wilderness map and I list sites there will be an xp value with the description.

And for your perusal a simple sample of one of my Locations of Interest:

The Shallow Barrows (500xp)

The Shallow Barrows are located at the foot of the northern most mountain in the Meznor Range. There are fourteen large mounds encircled with large black stones cut from the mountainside. The stones have large runes carved into the sides, but they vanish when it rains or water is poured over the stones. This is not a magical effect, but a natural occurrence. The hill barbarians will not enter the area and the local mage guild forbids its apprentices to explore the barrows.

Not much is known except that has the distinct oblong burrows and runes tell they are Northmen origin, a now extinct culture. Who or what is buried within is not known. Those who claim to have visited the burrows have seen ghostly men raise from the mounds a patrol the area. These are in fact wraiths, 1d4 for each burrow. They will drain their enemies of life. In the central burrow is the wraith lord. The wraith lord will only rise if one of the barrows is disturbed.

The stones around the burrows once worked as a barrier that the wraiths could not pass, but their power has weakened due to the erosion of the runes. When the wraiths approach the stones they will hesitate, but they will continue on. They will not go far from the barrows, but far enough to chase away anyone wanting to plunder their graves.

The Northmen currency was made of iron chits so those have all rusted to dust as well as their weapons and armor. The only remaining treasure under the mounds is magical. Each barrow should yield 0-5 magic items. These should be weapons and armor. The central barrow should yield 3-8 (d6) magical items plus the minor artifact, Anadour's Bracers.

Anadour's Bracers provided the priests of the Northmen the power to lead their tribes. These braces provide +2 to Strength and Constitution attributes, adds +2 to Armor Class, and allow the wearer to do an automatic critical hit once/month.