At the end of August, I made a post about an idea for a game engine/dice system. We spent quite a bit of the last month doing pretty extensive playtesting to see if it should replace the d100 based system that we have been developing Bloodfall to work for. After several iterations, we’ve concluded that we are going to be sticking with the d100 hybrid system that we had been developing but we learned a couple of interesting things along the way!
Lesson One: Dice Pools are hard to balance!
It turns out that actually dice pools run into some pretty weird to fix problems pretty quickly. First of all, because of the way that adding even one more die changes the probability curve of a roll trying to create the sense of advancement that we want just doesn’t work super well. This also creates a problem where if you have any two opponents who are of differing skill levels to each other it heavily favors the more skilled opponent to a degree that we found to not give the vibe we wanted out of the game.
Lesson two: Legibility Is very important!
While the system initially sounded great to us while we were writing it, trying to run the thing proved very quickly to be unwieldy in a way that just did not work the way we hoped. There were too many things to keep track of with each roll (especially using a VTT!). Which die was the Body Die again? Which one was the Power Die? How many dice? Plus what?
In order to have a system we feel comfortable putting out for people to play games with we want the basics to be graspable within the first five times you use them. Don’t get me wrong we love systems complexity and crunch but it should not get in the way of understanding the core thing that you’re doing.
Since then we’ve been hard at work designing Bloodfall. I also have a few other things coming down the pipeline soon. I’m working on an article on Social Combat that should be finished later this week or early next. In addition to Bloodfall I’m also working on two smaller games: Hauberk! a standalone wargame for old school fantasy roleplaying games and Amulet: Second Age a game based on the 1974 Rules with all of the Supplements with some concepts ported over from Bloodfall. I hope to have Hauberk! ready to release before the end of the year. I’m also working on some party construction supplements that will be usable with any fantasy roleplaying games whether they be old school or modern.
Also, just a reminder that I do have a Patreon that I will be posting these articles on at least twelve hours before they go up here! It would be easier to post more often with more support, so if you want to see more from me drop a few dollars a month there. Also at some point soon I want to start doing streams while I’m worldbuilding or designing.
In the process of developing the projects that we have going on here at Red Lily Adventuring we came across a problem: How do we make these systems unique and having their own feel while maintaining the feeling that they were developed by the same people? We wanted some sort of “brand identity” for lack of a better word. A specific hook that answers that the question “Why Red Lily Games over game from any other tabletop company?”. (Which is a very good question as a lover of tabletop games in general.)
After a lot of deliberation we came up with an answer: We need a unique dice mechanic/game engine that can be transferable across games while being able to be varied slightly to serve the needs of each game. So we buckled down and blew through dozens of ideas until we settled on what is now the RLA Tabletop Games Engine.
The simple version can be explained as follows: When rolling a Skill Check, the player rolls 2d10 + a number of d10s equal to the Skill Level of the rolled Skill + the appropriate Ability Modifier as determined by the Referee, they are trying to equal or beat a variable Difficulty Value that has been set by the Referee.
The first 2d10 are the Aptitude Dice which consist of the “supernatural” causation die (the Will Die, the Mana Die, the Matrix Die, etc.) and the “natural” causation die (the Body Die). These Aptitude Dice represent the fact that any player character has some level of baseline skill regardless of their level of training in a specific field. The “supernatural” causation die represents the “animating force” that pervades a setting (the net, the quintessence, the spiritus mundi) and the “natural” causation die represents the baseline physical capability of a player character. Rolling 1s and 10s on these dice can have varying effects on the results depending on the specific game system/setting and the specific sort of check (for example a 1 on the Mana Die when rolling to cast a spell could increase a pc’s corruption by demonic forces).
Skill Levels vary from 0 to 5 and denote how many d10 should be rolled as Skill Dice. Ability Modifiers vary from -5 to +5 (we haven’t worked out the underlying scores). We settled on 0 to 5 (no Skill Dice to 5d10 Skill Dice) because the particular curves created by these values mean that we can set the Average DV as 25 and have that remain challenging to middling skill and only really becoming truly trivial when you max out a particular skill (end game characters should feel powerful in their specialties).
Ability modifiers of -5 to +5 allow the system to feel like the Stats have an effect without it being outsized and overshadowing the Skills and powers that the player has chosen to invest time and effort into.
There are a lot of other nuances to the game engine and it will also probably see some minor revisions post playtesting but I have a feeling this core system will remain relatively intact as time progresses. Bloodfall and its weird/dark fantasy super far future pseudo-Renaissance remains our main focus but we have a couple of other projects simmering in the background: a low fantasy truly medieval setting currently codenamed “Mythic Europe” and a cyberpunk/near-future science fiction setting currently codenamed “Net Jockeys/2091. I expect to be able to provide updates on the work usually once a week unless life intervenes.
I love stories. I love writing stories, reading stories, telling stories. I love good movies and good television and good video games and good books. Stories are not why I play tabletop roleplaying games. There are so many other sources for stories and they’re all so much better at telling stories than pen & paper games are. Tabletop games are actually garbage at telling stories. Mind you we have plenty of stories to tell about what we did after playing them but that is not the same thing as the game telling a story.
So why do we play games then? Or I suppose why do I play games? That’s the question I’m going to answer. Then like any good writer I’m just going to assume that I’m completely correct and make sweeping generalizations about the entire medium.
We play games to embody, to go on adventures and inhabit bodies that we cannot in our “real” lives. Whether because of purely physical limitations or those limitations that we impose on ourselves via our ethical principles, we cannot or will not delve into deep dungeons to loot treasure or rescue far trader from space pirates or lead a troop of knights in a gallant lance charge or uncover dark conspiracies of eldritch cultists. That is what games are useful for. We DO things within them. Game systems are the means by which we mediate between ourselves and the world which we are attempting to adventure within.
We can tell stories about our adventures to people after the fact but the game itself has no “story”, it’s not (or at least shouldn’t be) a carefully crafted narrative with characterization and plot nor is it at all similar to improv comedy. It is a much deeper experience than mere narrative. It is an experience of a life other than our own, it is an embodied practice, a ritual that creates new beings and new worlds that we sink into and become. By the sacred words and occult mathematical descriptions hidden within rulebooks we utter into existence new realms and make real the flesh within them.
A game session is therefore not a passive telling but an active doing. Active tense. I swing. I lift. I look. I press my ear to the door. I spit blood from my mouth. Active. Doing. Players are actually solving the mystery, not telling a story about detectives who did it outside of themselves.
Now you may ask yourself, where is this all going? Why does it matter? How can I apply this to my games? Besides my own high-minded ideas about truth and forming the correct theoretical line? I do not have a fucking clue! This is the highest pursuit: ultimately useless speculation based entirely around the personal experiences of a shut-in geek who has read too many books and ran tabletop elf games for more hours than is healthy. Truly, I am the real inheritor of the Socratic tradition!
Along with my thoughts on the process of hexmapping I want to chronicle the process by which I actually set up the Sandbox for my weird 1974 D&D campaign. For this I will be using my own tables, Welsh Piper’s hex templates, and a template that I’ve whipped up myself. I will be mapping with 30 mile world hexes, 6 mile regional hexes, and 1.2 mile local hexes because these match up the best to movement rates in my experience.
First, I used Azgaar’s World Generator until I got a continent of roughly the shape I wanted. Then, I opened the image I downloaded from the generator up into Photoshop and cropped it to fit into the hex area of the template that I created and will attach to this post. This produces a land area roughly the size of Central Europe. From there, I divided it up into countries based on what looked right off the map, this part is much more of an art form than a science.
So after deciding upon the countries, their names, and their borders. I chose one nation to focus on first. As a result, this series will follow the development of the Kingdom of Thaolor. Once the focus of my efforts was decided upon, it was time to move onto the next step, which is cropping down the map to focus just on the Kingdom of Thaolor and determining its demographics. Since the vibe I was going for here was Late/Post-Roman Britain before the Anglo-Saxon migrations, so the population density of this kingdom is about 40 people per square mile.
With that information determined we were ready to go over to Welsh Piper’s Medieval Demographics Online to figure out how many cities we need to place. Plugging in our population density, a history spanning about 1,200 years of inhabitation, and the knowledge that Thaolor occupies about 85,800 square miles (a little bigger than modern day Austria) we learn that we have one massive city of about 17,000 people and eight smaller cities of about 10,000 people each. We can skip naming most of these cities now, we will come back to that but we can name the capital just as guide. The result is the below map which will serve as an excellent guide as we move forward.
Next we open up the sector template (use the hexRegional_5mileScale template from the Welsh Piper temaplates) in hexographer (this is the template we are using to drill down to a 6 mile per hex scale) and begin to fill in the terrain using the process described in my Thoughts on Hexmapping Part 1 post. I’m going to start with Sector E2. Once we finish that we can begin to stitch them together in Photoshop, which will be a time consuming but worthwhile process.
I won’t pontificate for too long on the placement of rivers. It is possibly one of the most discussed subjects in the whole topic of producing maps for fantasy roleplaying games. I will therefore remain concise. It is recommended that you place rivers in ways that make good sense and set them up to flow downhill into larger bodies of water. Lake hexes (bodies of water that take up at least one whole 6 mile hex should have at least two rivers leading into them but feel free to exercise your own judgement.
Step 3: Placing Settlements
Now almost just as much ink has been spilled in the tabletop blogosphere about cities and settlements. The system that I’m about to describe here isn’t necessarily breaking new ground but I am going to be synthesizing several ideas in this system. The main things that I’m drawing upon are Medieval Demographics Made Easy, Traveller’s Universal World Profile, Welsh Piper’s Cities & Settlements article and Medieval Demographics online tool, and this article by Bat in the Attic about using the UWP in a fantasy context.
The Universal City Profile (UCP) The Universal City Profile, or UCP as I will call it from now on, is an alphanumeric code that is intended to portray a brush over of information on the hex map to make it into a more useful tool for running at the table. The UCP read as follows:
Resource Potential (RP) The Resource Potential score is determined by rolling 2d6-2 to produce a range of 0-10 (A). This represents how rich in non-agricultural resources the area the settlement is built on is.
Local Water Supply (LWS) The Local Water Supply score is determined by rolling 2d6-7 and adding or subtracting the appropriate modifiers to produce a range of 0-10 (A). Add +6 if the settlement is within 1 hex of a river. Add +4 if the settlement is within two hexes of a water hex. Add +2 if the settlement is in a forest hex. Subtract -1 if the settlement is in hill hex. Subtract -2 if the settlement is in a mountain hex. Subtract -6 if the settlement is in a desert hex. This value is automatically 10 if the settlement is in a swamp hex.
Local Agricultural Potential (LAP) The Local Agricultural Potential score is determined by rolling 2d6-7 and adding the Local Water Supply score to produce a range of 0-10 (A). This represents how fertile the farms and herds which are managed immediately outside the settlement and are used to feed the people of the settlement.
Population/Settlement Class (SC) The Settlement Class of a settlement is determined by rolling 2d6 and then adding the appropriate modifiers based on RP, LWS, and LAP, as well as its proximity to other settlements, as detailed below. This will produce a range of between 0 and 15 (F). The minimum population table is in units we will call families, which consists of 5 people.
If the settlement’s RP is 2 or less, subtract one. If the settlement’s LAP is 2 or less subtract one. If the settlement’s LAP is 3, 4, or 5, add one. If the settlement’s LAP is 6 or greater, add three. If the settlement’s LWS is 0, subtract two. If the settlement is adjacent to a settlement with a Settlement Class (SC) of C or higher, subtract six. If the settlement is within two hexes of a settlement with a SC of C or higher, subtract three. If the settlement is adjacent to a settlement with a SC of 9, A, or B, subtract four. If the settlement is within two hexes of a settlement with a SC of 9, A, or B, subtract two. If the settlement is adjacent to a settlement with a SC of 6, 7, or 8, subtract two. If the settlement is within two hexes of a settlement with a SC of 6, 7, or 8, subtract one.
Fortification Level (FL) This signifies what sort, if any, of fortifications (castles, keeps, etc.), that the ruler of the settlement lives in. This is determined by rolling 2d6 and adding the appropriate modifiers as detailed below.
If the SC of the settlement is C or higher, add six. If the SC of the settlement is 9, A, or B, add four. If the SC of the settlement is 6, 7, or 8, add two. If the SC of the settlement is 3, 4, or 5, subtract two. If the SC of the settlement is 2 or less subtract four.
A score of 12 or higher indicates a FL of A, which means that the settlement contains a full Castle (an internal Keep and surrounding curtain wall). A score of 11 indicates a FL of B, which means that the settlement contains a standalone Keep. A score of 10 indicates a FL of C, which means that the settlement contains a standalone stone Tower. A score of 9 indicates a FL of D, which means that the settlement contains a wooden Hall or Manor House. A score of 8 or less indicates a FL of X, which means that the settlement contains no such fortifications.
Wall Level (WL) This signifies what sort, if any, of wall or fence encircles and encloses the settlement. This is determined by rolling 2d6 and adding the appropriate modifiers as detailed below.
If the SC of the settlement is C or higher, add six. If the SC of the settlement is 9, A, or B, add four. If the SC of the settlement is 6, 7, or 8, add two. If the SC of the settlement is 3, 4, or 5, subtract two. If the SC of the settlement is 2 or less subtract four.
A score of 12 or higher indicates a WL of A, which means that the settlement has a high stone Curtain Wall. A score of 11 indicates a WL of B, which means that the settlement has a wooden Palisade. A score of 10 indicates a WL of C, which means that the settlement contains a low stone Fence. A score of 9 indicates a WL of D, which means that the settlement has a Hedge. A score of 8 or less indicates a WL of X, which means that the settlement has no such Wall or Fence.
Government Type (GT) This score indicates what sort of system of government that the settlement operates under. This is determined by rolling 2d6-7 and adding the settlement’s SC.
Government Type Table
Score
Type
0
Clan Patriarch/Matriarch
1
Council of Clan Elders
2
Aristocratic Oligarchy
3
Athenian Style Democracy
4
Temple Complex Rule
5
Aristocratic Republic
6
Feudal Noble
7
Colonial Charter
8
Bourgeois Republic
9
Centralized Bureaucratic Republic
10 (A)
Tyrant/Dictator
11 (B)
Petty King
12 (C)
Federation of Freemen’s Guilds
13 (D)
Theocratic Republic
14 (E)
Theocratic Dictatorship/Kingship
15 (F)
Inquisitorial Oligarchy
Law Level (LL) The Law Level (LL) of a settlement indicates how much the authority of the ruler interferes with the lives of its inhabitants, what sorts of weapons that PCs can carry in the settlement, and is used as a modifier on certain sorts of checks. It is determined by rolling 2d6-7 and adding the Government Type to produce a range of 0-10 (A).
A LL of between 0-3 means that PCs can carry any sorts of weapons openly in the street. A LL of 4-7 means that PCs can carry swords and daggers but cannot openly carry weapons of war (polearms, spears, hammers, etc). A Law Level of 8 or higher means that PCs may not lawfully carry any weapons other than daggers, which must not be carried openly.
Technology Level (TL) The Technology Level of a settlement indicates the level of technology that the settlement has access to and produces. For our purposes, this will always be 5, which indicates a level of technology consistent with the period between 1000 CE and 1300 CE.
The takes “D&D has a problem letting go of its wargaming past” or “tabletop roleplaying games emerged out of wargames” have been uttered online so many time that it would probably be impossible to count at this point. As an avid wargamer and ttrpg referee, I take a major issue with two parts of both of these takes. Firstly that tabletop roleplaying games ever stopped being wargames and secondly that it would be a bad thing if they were still or that they were at one point. My thesis here will be that D&D (and most ttrpgs besides certain branches like those derived from Apocalypse World) are as a matter of fact still a kind of wargame and that this is a good thing.
Firstly, and this isn’t really an argument but I will dive down into it in this paragraph anyways, wargames are just good fun. If you haven’t for whatever reason, I recommend trying out a wargame. Of course Warhammer dominates the market space but Parabellum’s Conquest or the ASOIAF wargame are both great for those who might want more grounded fantasy and a personal favorite of mine is Privateer Press’s Warmachine, which is for the Iron Kingdoms setting (as an aside the 3.5 Iron Kingdoms books are a favorite of mine that I still use in my 3rd edition campaigns). There is a great deal of fun to be had in an afternoon of wargaming with friends.
Secondly, and I think that this is more the argument that supports my loose thesis here, large amounts of roleplaying already take place in the playing of a wargame. You need to place yourself in the mindset which you do not regularly inhabit, that of a commander of armies. Furthermore, a lot (and I mean A LOT) of wargamers take playing to the lore, style, and identity of their chosen factions very seriously (one just needs to experience the ire that Warhammer players display at Games Workshop when they feel a rule doesn’t adequately express their faction’s style). They take great pains to paint models with minute details like rank insignia, squadron emblems, etc. Many even write up histories and service records for important miniatures and OCs that they have created in the settings and through play.
Many, many wargames over the years have even created campaign systems by which to track the service of units, advance both units and heroic characters, and provide context to individual matches. As a matter of fact, this is an old tradition in wargaming which proceeds roleplaying games (and is directly where the idea of campaigns and campaign records comes from). The original D&D rules originated, as we all now know, from Arneson’s Blackmoor table, which occupied a part of the map of the larger Castle & Crusade society. These are the sorts of systems and tendencies within wargaming that roleplaying games relied on to emerge in the first place.
Okay, so we have now established that the line between wargames and roleplaying games is fuzzy at best and there is a very clear through line from campaigns within wargames into the style of roleplaying games. But why is this a good thing? Well to put it simply, the average modern roleplaying game is an individuated, alienated experience. This only becomes more true as roleplaying games and roleplayers try to differentiate themselves as “not at all like” wargames and wargamers. Embracing this legacy and the through-lines between wargames and roleplaying games, or rather as I contend collapsing the borders that we have erected between the two hobbies, is the path to creating a truly social, collective hobby.
Sorry this got a bit rambly at spots, this is less an essay and more a collection of loosely formed thoughts that I delve into as I work on the final version of Bloodfall. Thanks for reading and I hope to have the final version of the Bloodfall Rules Compendium ready for launch by Christmas time.
As I’ve been working on Bloodfall and prepping for an old school sandbox campaign that I’m trying to start soon I have become increasingly troubled by the problem of hexmapping and enamored by the old Judges Guild Wilderlands products that I’ve had in my library for years now without much consideration. After a lot of time, consideration, and pursuing both Reddit and every OSR blog I could find, I have devised a very idiosyncratic and probably overly detailed system of creating a hexmap that serves my purposes. I was especially inspired by Welsh Piper’s Hex-based Campaign Design posts, Engine of Oracle’s Random Terrain Tables For Fantasy Hexcrawls, and Bat In The Attic’s How To Make A Fantasy Sandbox. Did the world really need another series of blogposts about hexmap generation? No, it probably doesn’t but alas here we are, for I am cursed with this affliction by the undying forces of Chaos! Hexcrawling and souls for my lord!
In this system hexes have three types: world (30 miles), regional (6 miles), and local (1.2 miles). This gives us world hexes with an area of roughly 780 square miles, regional hexes with an area of roughly 31 square miles, and local hexes with an area of roughly 1 square mile. Each world hex will consist of 19 whole and 12 half regional hexes, (the same goes for the number of local hexes a regional hex contains. If we wanted to go further we could break down the local hexes into an equal amount of roughly quarter mile “subhexes” with an area of roughly 14 hectares but I have seen no general reason to do this as of yet.
To start we will use Template A (found in the zipfile at the end of this post) which is 27 regional hexes wide and 19 regional hexes, giving us a regional area of about 15,903 square miles or a region just a little bit bigger than the country of Montenegro. First, if you wish to have any specific features like an idea for a coastline or a range of mountains place those in their respective areas of the map.
If you don’t have any specific ideas, pick a world hex to start in, I recommend somewhere near the center of the map. You can either choose or randomly determine the dominant elevation and dominant terrain of this starting world hex. If randomly determined the elevation of the starting world hex will be Lowland (1d6-1 times 100 feet, with negative values equaling zero) 60% of the time, Subalpine (1d10+5 times 100 feet) 30% of the time, and Alpine (1d8+1 times 1,000 feet) 10% of the time. Then use the following tables to determine the dominant terrain depending on the dominant elevation.
Lowland World Hex Terrain Table
1d8
Terrain
1
Desert
2
Farmland
3
Marsh/Swamp
4
Plains
5
Heath
6
Deciduous Forest
7
Water
8
Steppe
Subalpine World Hex Terrain Table
1d8
Terrain
1
Badlands
2
Desert
3
Deciduous Forest
4
Bare Hills
5
Forested Hills
6
Moors
7
Coniferous Forest
8
Fen/Bog
Alpine World Hex Terrain Table
1d8
Terrain
1
Bare Mountains
2
Desert
3
Deciduous Forest
4
Forested Mountains
5
Plains
6
Snowcapped Mountains
7
Peatland
8
Coniferous Forest
Now that you have a starting world hex, we need to populate the rest of the world hexes. For each world hex that shares a side with the starting world hex roll 1d100, 50% of the time it will have the same dominant terrain as the starting world hex, 25% of the time it will have a terrain which is considered “secondary” to the starting world hex’s dominant terrain, 17% of the time it will have a terrain that is considered “tertiary” to the starting world hex’s dominant terrain, and 8% of the time it will have a terrain which is considered “quaternary” to the starting world hex’s dominant terrain. Consult the tables below for these types for each dominant terrain.
Badlands (Subalpine) Terrain Types
Type
Terrain
Dominant
Badlands
Secondary
Desert (Subalpine)
Tertiary
Bare Hills
Quaternary
Heath (1-3) or Bare Mountains (4-6)
Bare Hills (Subalpine) Terrain Types
Type
Terrain
Dominant
Bare Hills
Secondary
Bare Mountains
Tertiary
Deciduous Forest (1-3) or Coniferous Forest (4-6)
Quaternary
Desert ( (1-3) or Marsh/Swamp (4-6)
Bare Mountains (Alpine) Terrain Types
Type
Terrain
Dominant
Bare Mountains
Secondary
Bare Hills
Tertiary
Forested Mountains
Quaternary
Desert
Coniferous Forest (Alpine) Terrain Types
Type
Terrain
Dominant
Coniferous Forest (Alpine)
Secondary
Coniferous Forest (Subalpine)
Tertiary
Deciduous Forest (Alpine)
Quaternary
Forested Hills (1-3) or Moors (4-6)
Coniferous Forest (Lowland) Terrain Types
Type
Terrain
Dominant
Coniferous Forest (Lowland)
Secondary
Forested Hills
Tertiary
Deciduous Forest (Lowland)
Quaternary
Marsh/Swamp (1-2), Water (3-5), or Farmland (6)
Coniferous Forest (Subalpine) Terrain Types
Type
Terrain
Dominant
Coniferous Forest (Subalpine)
Secondary
Coniferous Forest (Lowland)
Tertiary
Deciduous Forest (Subalpine)
Quaternary
Forested Hills (1-3) or Moors (4-6)
Deciduous Forest (Alpine) Terrain Types
Type
Terrain
Dominant
Deciduous Forest (Alpine)
Secondary
Deciduous Forest (Subalpine)
Tertiary
Coniferous Forest (Alpine)
Quaternary
Forested Hills (1-3) or Peatland (4-6)
Deciduous Forest (Lowland) Terrain Types
Type
Terrain
Dominant
Deciduous Forest (Lowland)
Secondary
Forested Hills
Tertiary
Coniferous Forest (Lowland)
Quaternary
Marsh/Swamp (1-2), Water (3-5), or Farmland (6)
Deciduous Forest (Subalpine) Terrain Types
Type
Terrain
Dominant
Deciduous Forest (Subalpine)
Secondary
Deciduous Forest (Lowland)
Tertiary
Coniferous Forest (Subalpine)
Quaternary
Forested Hills (1-3) or Moors (4-6)
Desert (Alpine) Terrain Types
Type
Terrain
Dominant
Desert (Alpine)
Secondary
Desert (Subalpine)
Tertiary
Bare Mountains
Quaternary
Bare Hills (1-3) or Farmland (4-6)
Desert (Subalpine) Terrain Types
Type
Terrain
Dominant
Desert (Subalpine)
Secondary
Desert (Lowland)
Tertiary
Bare Hills
Quaternary
Badlands (1-3) or Farmland (4-6)
Farmland (Lowland) Terrain Types
Type
Terrain
Dominant
Farmland
Secondary
Plains
Tertiary
Stepped
Quaternary
Deciduous Forest (1-3) or Coniferous Forest (4-6)
Fen/Bog (Subalpine) Terrain Types
Type
Terrain
Dominant
Fen/Bog
Secondary
Moors
Tertiary
Forested Hills
Quaternary
Heath (1-3) or Water (4-6)
Forested Hills (Subalpine) Terrain Types
Type
Terrain
Dominant
Forested Hills
Secondary
Forested Mountains
Tertiary
Moors
Quaternary
Fen/Bog (1-3) or Peatland (4-6)
Forested Mountains (Alpine) Terrain Types
Type
Terrain
Dominant
Forested Mountains
Secondary
Forested Hills
Tertiary
Bare Mountains
Quaternary
Fen/Bog (1-3) or Water (4-6)
Heath (Lowland) Terrain Types
Type
Terrain
Dominant
Heath
Secondary
Marsh/Swamp
Tertiary
Moors
Quaternary
Farmland (1-3) or Fen/Bog (4-6)
Marsh/Swamp (Lowland) Terrain Types
Type
Terrain
Dominant
Marsh/Swamp
Secondary
Moors
Tertiary
Heath
Quaternary
Farmland (1-3) or Fen/Bog (4-6)
Moors (Subalpine) Terrain Types
Type
Terrain
Dominant
Moors
Secondary
Forested Hills
Tertiary
Fen/Bog
Quaternary
Forested Mountains (1-3) or Heath (4-6)
Peatland (Alpine) Terrain Types
Type
Terrain
Dominant
Peatland
Secondary
Moors
Tertiary
Fen/Bog
Quaternary
Forested Hills (1-3) or Heath (4-6)
Snowcapped Mountains (Alpine) Terrain Types
Type
Terrain
Dominant
Snowcapped Mountains
Secondary
Bare Hills
Tertiary
Bare Mountains
Quaternary
Fen/Bog (1-3) or Water (4-6)
Steppe (Lowland) Terrain Types
Type
Terrain
Dominant
Steppe
Secondary
Plains
Tertiary
Deciduous Forest (Lowland)
Quaternary
Heath
Water (Lowland) Terrain Types
Type
Terrain
Dominant
Water
Secondary
Plains
Tertiary
Farmland
Quaternary
Heath (1-3) or Marsh/Swamp (4-6)
Desert (Lowland) Terrain Types
Type
Terrain
Dominant
Desert (Lowland)
Secondary
Bare Hills
Tertiary
Steppe
Quaternary
Water (1-3) or Farmland (4-6)
After all of the world hexes on the map are populated, it’s time to drill down and populate the regional hexes with elevations and terrain. Since there are 19 whole regional hexes per a world hex (and the center one already has its terrain populated we can then fill out the rest using the following tables (you can just fill out the hexes on the borders of each world hex with what makes the most sense).
Red Lily Adventuring 
