Major Races of the Nameless Coast

Since the last Nameless Coast post I did a bit of thinking about how to introduce population groups into the area and use these groups to drive the development of hex contents. Today I sketched out a quick table of the major races I'm going to use for this, and some broad categories to assign to these groups.

PBE Games: New One Page / Uncommon Ground

The latest PBE Games releases since the last update, starting with a few new One Page tables:

• One Page #15: Jungle Features and Hazards
• One Page #16: Wetlands Features and Hazards
• One Page Pack #3

Numbers 15 and 16 complete the terrain and hazard tables I started with One Page #8. Pack #3 is a bundle deal offering One Page numbers 11 to 15 at a discount.

I've also released several new Uncommon Ground texture packs:

• Lunar is an irregular stone surface with a monochromatic appearance.
• Sand Burn is a grainy stone surface.
• Wooden Waves depicts smooth-grained wood with wave-like darker lines.

All Uncommon Ground textures are licensed for personal or commercial use. You can see the license right here. Here are the preview image for these new textures.

Lunar

Sand Burn

Wooden Waves

That's it for this update. Thanks for reading!

Wilds - It's a Trap!

After being stymied by the pool at the bottom of the eastern stairs, the party decides to close things up and backtrack to the other stairs, hoping for drier ground.

Nameless Coast - Now with Name!

So I've decided to run with the Nameless Coast as the overarching name for this place. I've also started to frame out how I'm going to populate at least parts of it. I'm going to start with pure wilderness with no established populations of intelligent, community-forming creatures (so no humans, elves, dwarfs, goblinoids, or similar). Of course this is a bit of a fuzzy set, since depending on how you interpret creature-descriptions they could be in or out (things like trolls and giants).

Next I'm going to start sending in groups, each with a set of characteristics that include why they're here, how many they are, and how they got here. For example I may introduce a tribe of goblins looking for new territory since their old area is getting overpopulated. They're traveling in from the south-west on foot, they're well-prepared for survival, but they're relatively few in number. Another group might be a shipload of human refugees fleeing a distant war. They stole the ship, are poorly organized, and have little in the way of supplies. Where they land could well determine how long their pseudo-colony survives.

I figure I'll run about 100 years of this sort of thing, with new arrivals coming in randomly over time. Not exactly sure what system will be a fit for this, so I may pull together something in Fudge. I did a quick brainstorm on group motivations / attributes (really quick), and came up with this:

Why are they here?

• Looking for something
• Fleeing something
• Population pressure
• Invasion

Who are they?

• Leadership
• Numbers
• Unifying characteristics / aspects
• Underlying divisions

Resources

• Military
• Survival
• Trade

How did they get here?

• Ship
• Land
• Magic

What is their attitude toward others?

• Friendly
• Xenophobic
• Hostile
• Cooperative
• Neutral

When did they get here?

• Which decade / year

Obviously this is still very rough, and I haven't really framed how I'm going to achieve forward progress, but it's a start.

Coast of [something] Hex Sandbox

Terrain is done! I spent a few hours (OK, more than a few), finishing off all the six-mile hexes with basic terrain, and then dropped in a couple islands for good measure. Here's the final result.

Final Terrain Map

Wilds - Into the Darkness (again)

Usually I trim down and polish up the turns from this game. Today I decided to just cut and paste the message that went out to my players (minus the contacts section with email addresses and such). The main difference is the addendum that outlines standard marching orders and watches.

Nameless Hexes

I really need a snappy name for this project, but I'm not feeling inspired yet. I had the time to add to the previous map. I'm still using the same basic filling strategy with Ground Rules, and now that I have the edges finished off, it's easier to deal with a full hex at a time. Detailing out a hex worth of terrain takes me about 20 minutes now.