1. Roll 3d6 on this chart for Climate, Elevation and Humidity of the region
ex: I roll a 3 (Temperate), a 2 (Low), and a 4 (Dry)
2. Cross reference this chart to find biome, this is the default biome of the map
ex: Temperate and Dry gives me Woodland
3. Draw a Hex Flower of 7 hexes in the middle of the paper
4. Draw the borders with a thicker line
4. Write a H in the center hex: this is the Safe Haven
5. Roll the Terrain of this region
ex: I roll a 10, which gives me Rocky Terrain
6. Draw the Terrain and Biome on the map, or color it accordingly
If you don't know how to draw it, google "[biome/terrain] from above" and try to copy the textures that you see
7. The rest of the regions will have 2 different kind of terrain per region
Roll 1d10 for Terrain and 1d6 for how many hexes it covers, 2 times, and draw them on the paper, thickening the borders
ex: First terrain, I roll 2 (1d10) and 5 (1d6). A Wet Forest covers 5 hexes
Second terrain, 4 (1d10) and 4 (1d6). Flat Terrain, biome stays our default, which is
woodland
Reroll if a new kind of terrain doesn't pop up
8. Thicken the borders of the 2d6 region
9. Randomly place a Lair and a Waypoint
Waypoints are structures that allow people to teleport from one to the other once they're found
and repaired
They can also store objects in dimensional pockets that are available in any other Waypoint
Lairs offer shelter to whatever monster controls the territory
ex: The region is 9 hexes big, so I roll a d9 (d10, rerolling 9s) for the Lair and then a d8 for
the Waypoint. I roll a 7 and a 1 and I place them on the map
10. Mark them on the map with a L and a W
11. Repeat steps 7-10 going clockwise around the central hex flower until it's surrounded. Remember to have a new kind of Terrain pop up in every region.
12. Make the map even
13. Draw coordinates
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14. Place Features
There are 6 Features
Roll 1d6 and then the coordinates and place a Feature in that hex, signaled by a roman
numeral
Reroll if there's already a Feature, a Waypoint or a Lair in that hex
If it ends in a region that was not fleshed out yet, roll the Terrain for that region
If you roll a Feature that is already on the map, roll a d6 again
If it's a new Feature, place it on the map and draw a Path between the new feature and the
one already on the map
If it's an old Feature, draw a path between those 2 Features
15. Drop a d4 on the map
It will point to 3 directions
If there are any Paths in those directions, starting rom the Haven, draw some Paths from the
Haven that lead to those Paths
16. Flesh out the monsters and the Features around the map. I like to use Spark Tables for
inspiration
Features could be landmarks, loot, hazards, wonders, machines, architecture, events, etc.
Thanks to Dave Lombardo for the idea of Waypoints, the author of the blog 9and30Kingdoms from where I stole the tables and the admin from r/mapmaking that uploaded that biome chart on Imgur
Stay tuned for my rules for travel that leverage this kind of map
