Random Clan Terrain Generator

In 2015 I wrote a blog entry to randomly generate an Imperial Chinese Prefecture for TTRPGs set in Imperial China. I was quite satisfied with my article (itself based on a post on Éric Nieudan's now-defunct web-site), but it has only very recently occurred to me that I could easily adapt it to Sartar to make a Random Clan Terrain Generator!

What you need:
 - A standard 52-card deck with French suits (♠♥♣♦); remove the jokers and the 2's.
 - Dice.

1. Draw cards to make a 7×7 grid; leave centre of grid empty. The rectangle represents the tula, and the dark grey centre is the main settlement, the clan's capital:

2. Terrain the remaining 48 areas according to card suit; face cards mean there is a steading. See tables below:

Terrain
♦ plains
♣ woods or swamp
♥ hills
♠ mountains

Steadings
Jack: hamlet or stead
Queen: temple, shrine, other holy place
King: manor or mansion
Ace: small town or village

Choose or draw another card for sub-types, e.g.:

Second Card Drawn	Settlement Sub-Type	Temple Sub-Type	Manor Sub-Type
♦	Sartarite	Orlanthi	Retired Rune Lord/Priest
♣	Sartarite	Ernaldan	Guildhouse
♥	Sartarite	other Sartarite	Local Thane
♠	non-Sartarite (e.g., Sun Domers, Lunar colonists)	pre-Sartarite	Wealthy Landowner

Third Card Drawn	other Sartarite Sub-Type	pre-Sartarite Sub-Type
♦	Humakt	True/Dream Dragon
♣	Issaries	Major Spirit
♥	Lhankor Mhy	Mysterious otherworldly being
♠	other	other

3. Encounters and events. Now, whenever the player characters are travelling throughout the clan territory, random encounters may happen! For each card, roll d20 and compare to card value (Jack = 11, Queen = 12,  King = 13, Ace = 14). If the die roll is = card value, look at the encounter on the table below.

Variant: Use a d10 in the light grey area.

Die	Civilised Encounters Die roll < card value	Events Die roll = card value
1	Farmers ♦travelling ♣foraging ♥poaching ♠fleeing
2	Fishermen ♦working ♣mending nets ♥famished ♠building a dam
3	Merchants ♦caravan ♣lost ♥being robbed ♠loaded with silver	Ambush or trap
4	Initiates ♦preaching ♣looking for help ♥begging ♠on a pilgrimage	Impromptu market
5	Warriors ♦professional ♣rural militia ♥urban militia ♠press-gang	Freak weather
6	Orlanthi from Another Clan ♦mercenaries ♣traders ♥transients ♠pilgrims	Blocked roads
7	Orlanthi from Another Tribe ♦warband ♣migrating ♥raiding ♠hiding	Fire
8	Non-human ♦Tusk Riders ♣Elves ♥Beast Men ♠Trolls	Flood
9	Adventurers ♦bruised & beaten ♣hostile ♥friendly ♠richly equipped	Battle
10	Lunars ♦tax collectors ♣missionaries ♥colonists ♠soldiers	Ghosts
11	Bandits ♦river raiders ♣on the run ♥hiding ♠carrying plunder	Country fair
12	Thieves ♦street thugs ♣running from the law ♥spies ♠burglars	Bandit Lair
13	Sun Domers ♦merchants ♣ambassadors ♥prisoners ♠pilgrims	Siege
14		Plague

Feedback and suggestions welcome.

Old School Hexcrawl (Cont'd)

About two years ago, I posted an island sandbox/hexcrawling suggestion that I had stolen from Konsumterra's ever mind-blowing blog. Well, Konsumterra has updated the island map, which I am repurposing here as the detailed map of the unnamed island off the Umathelan coast north of Fengwal in the Dashomo Sea. That's in the upper part of map No.65 for those of you who have the Argan Argar Atlas. Konsumterra has named the island Exile Island but I like to call it Forbidden Island.

My suggestions for using this sandbox in a Second Age Umathelan game are as follows:

☠ Barony Humans/Humanoid Kingdoms/Highland kingdom ⁃ These are squabbling polities founded by God Learners that have been exiled from the mainland and who are self-styled 'kings' and 'barons' (hence the names of the polities).

☠ Beastmen Land ⁃ These hills are the refuge of a group of victims of some mad God Learners' experiments who are half-human half-animal. They try to stay aloof from the other islanders, and are known to deal quite harshly with trespassers.

☠ Bright/Dark Faerie Woods ⁃ The adjectives 'bright' and 'dark' do not refer to the inhabitants of the woods themselves, since both woods are inhabited by Aldryami, but to their relationship with the neighbouring humans: the 'bright' Aldryami are friendly, the 'dark' ones are not.

☠ Bright/Dark Troll Land ⁃ The adjectives 'bright' and 'dark' do not refer to the troll themselves, since both lands are inhabited by Uzko (dark trolls), but to their relationship with the Storm worshippers from the north-eastern peninsula: the 'bright' Uzko are friendly, the 'dark' ones are not. It is unclear whether the Uzko here are originally from Jrustela or from the Tarmo Mountains.

☠ Cave folk Tribal Lands ⁃ This area is inhabited by a clan of Jaskali Stone Age hunters (see the Guide to Glorantha p517-519) who belong to the Pteranodon tribe. Nobody knows how they got stranded on Forbidden Island, but they probably flew in on their pteranodons who later died or left .

☠ Dwarf Land ⁃ The Mostali here are from Curustus in Jrustela but obey the dwarves of Slon. Whenever a stone ship arrives on Forbidden Island to trade with the Malkioni settlers, the dwarves from Dwarf Land come and greet their brethren and help with anything the Slon Mostali may need.

☠ Elemental Cult Lands ⁃ This area has been settled by a clan of Himile-worshipping Uzko. As a result, this valley is always much colder than the rest of the island.

☠ Elf Land ⁃ Some Green Elves have been living in these forests for centuries. They are the second-oldest dwellers of the island after the Grey Giants, and resent being encroached by other races. However, there aren't many elves and so they cannot strike back. Yet.

☠ Empire humans ⁃ The Malkioni exiles here are still loyal to the Middle Sea Empire, hence their name.

☠ Giant Land ⁃ Home to a scattered clan of Grey Giants, who are possibly the only indigenous inhabitants of Forbidden Island.

☠ Gnome Land ⁃ This peninsula owes its name to the fact that, despite the proximity of the sea, it has a very strong connection with elemental Earth. There is a large temple dedicated to Ernalda.

☠ Goblins ⁃ This lowland is inhabited by a clan of goblins (red elves) from Porlaso who remained blocked on a reed island that broke off the coast of Porlaso and drifted on the seas until they were stranded here; they are puny and not very dangerous because they do not have a Queen to lead them.

☠ Reptilian Lads ⁃ Lascerdans (who just want to be left alone) live here. They have a very bad relationship with the Malasp.

☠ Swamp Land ⁃ This area has been cleared of any nonhuman dwellers by the God Learners.

☠ Viking Land ⁃ Some Storm worshippers from central Umathela have settled here and decided to remain— the sea is full of fish and sea life and, as long as they pay tribute to Terthinus, the Malasp leave them alone (see GtG p461).

Old School Hexcrawl

Exile Island by Konsumterra can be used almost 'as is' for a nice bit of old school hexcrawling off the Umathelan coast!

Let us have a look at all the nice details about Exile Island (aslo called Forbidden Island). Apparently, it used to be part of an empire; it is about 150km × 250km; it is a tropical island; it is covered with rainforest... So basically everything about this island: the history of the place, its size, its climate, its vegetation, makes is a perfect addition to any Second Age Umathelan campaign game!

Let's look at the reasons why the PCs should end up hexcrawling on it:

☠ The PCs could be stranded on the island because their ship sunk: survival game!
☠ The PCs could be on a mission for the ruler of one of the coastal cities: exploration game!
☠ The PCs could be looking for God Learner ruins in order to loot them: plunder game!

My Sandbox

So if you're saying "Old School" you're saying "Sandbox". If you're saying "Sandbox" you're saying "Hex-map". Here's mine. Second Age Umathela, right smack in the centre of Enkloso, with the river Riogache slowly flowing through it in a southeast-to-northwest direction.

click to enlarge

Most of the area is ruled, or rather claimed, by Duke Roderick of Varanswal. The central area around the Mere (a large, cool lake) is ruled by his archrival, Count William of Arstranwal. The actual extent of both rulers' authority is along the major paved roads (black on the map), and along the minor dirt roads (light brown on the map). The rest is controlled by uncivilised Umathings— or worse!

I have already ran four adventures; three in the Harlan/Rampart area, one in Greenmound.

Note: 1 hex is 10km.