Western Lands Domain/Hex Crawl Development

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Kane
Posts: 51
Joined: Wed Nov 16, 2022 4:08 pm

Western Lands Domain/Hex Crawl Development

Post by Kane »

I've been using as basis of BF1 and JN1 to fill in the setting of Western Lands. Red Tide's hex-crawl toolkit and An Echo Resounding's domain/mass combat features are being used to expand upon and detail the framework laid out in BF1.

I will be drawing on ACKS' Borderland setting for more inspiration on filling out the rest of the Western Lands.

My players' guide (23 pages) on the Western Lands is original text inspired by BF1, as well as a few additional things for PCs like magician schools, equipment packs and level titles. The GM's guide (39 pages) covers GM information, domain statistics (for An Echo Resounding) and any special rules I'll use. I also have a Calc document with a key for the Western Lands maps I gridded: a numbered 24mi hex map and two 6mi sub-maps (about 100 miles tall, one of the Slateholm region and another of the Morgansfort area).

I'm working on a Slateholm site document, only six pages so far, which has Red Tide details (the Court of Helsung II, as well as the four City Quarters), each quarter will have its own encounter tables.

There is enough room along the borderlands for me to situate B2 Keep on the Borderlands to easily fit on a road through the woods/swamp along a river, and take up another couple of hexes with BX modules.
Kane
Posts: 51
Joined: Wed Nov 16, 2022 4:08 pm

Re: Western Lands Domain/Hex Crawl Development

Post by Kane »

Although I'm using An Echo Resounding and Red Tide for my primary domain and hex-crawl system, I've found some uses for the Populated Hexcrawl Series of OSE - specifically, the Guide to Thieves Guilds, to create guidelines on the size and disposition of the guilds.

Rather than a unified Thieves' Guild we have several distinct ones, each with a different focus and alternately cooperating and competing. When most people speak of the Thieves' Guild they have conflated the activity, though the most self-conscious of them is the cat burglary gang of nobles - The High Society - who specialize in pilfering from towers and manors.

Name Type Membership Quarter
Steel Shadows Assassination 32 Merchant
Wretched Begging 32 Poor
High Society Burglary 26 The Knob
Mountebanks Con Artist 32 Merchant
Quick Bucks Fencing 31 Docks
False Bottoms Smuggling 23 Docks
Urdish Arete Spy Ring 27 Knob
Homely Fellows Thuggery 37 Poor
Fat Dragons Thuggery 31 Poor

As a basis for encounter tables I copied the Urban Encounter tables and NPC Sub-tables from OSRIC, and altered the races (there are no half orcs, gnomes, or half elves in my setting), humans are the dominant majority [69%] (somewhat levened in play by using BX style Modules, which have more frequent appearances of demihuman races). Advanced classes will be treated as flavor for a BFRPG class: lower level paladins, Monks and Rangers are Fighters, higher level Paladins are Clerics, Assassins are Thieves.
Kane
Posts: 51
Joined: Wed Nov 16, 2022 4:08 pm

Re: Western Lands Domain/Hex Crawl Development

Post by Kane »

I just became aware of the fact that Worlds Without Number contains some of the hex/domain tools in RT and AER. I'm going to look at the free pdf and see if I want to use anything from it as well/instead of the RT/AER, but they're probably similar.
Seven
Posts: 836
Joined: Wed Apr 22, 2020 11:17 am

Re: Western Lands Domain/Hex Crawl Development

Post by Seven »

A Thief Guild, like any other guild, is usually a loose association of fellows who pay a fee to operate within an area and who use their representatives to advance particular issues of concerns. The leader of a guild has his own agenda and policies and can use all guild members in concentrated actions. In essence, people interact with a guild only when they engage themselves in guild activity.
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