Sunday 27 February 2022

(Semi) Automated Hex Stocker

Here is an automated version of the hex stocker  from this post: https://lizardmandiaries.blogspot.com/2022/01/orb-monsters-gathering.html 

Although the stocker was designed for "Orb Monsters" specifically, you can use the random Magic the Gathering card hex stocking approach for other games! I've included some of the notes/instructions from the original post to make the stocker easier to use from this post! 

This method uses random Magic The Gathering cards profusely! When the rules below say “get/pull/use  a random card” it is referring to a random Magic the Gathering card. Use the following link to get a random magic card: https://scryfall.com/random (Then click the “random” button in the top left of the screen for another random card, ad infinitum! Note: You may like to use the advanced search option to lock in sets/types of cards and then - from there you could pick the card you like or roll a dice with the number of sides you have results for your search. Use https://dicelog.com/dice to quickly make a dX). When the rules below say something like “A random spell/artifact/monster/etc just keep pulling random cards until you get the thing you need! Sometimes this may need to be a specific colour (Such as certain colour monsters/sentients and spells only appearing in that coloured land). The magic cards pulled by the referee of the game may need some changing/warping/only act as inspiration for their purpose in this game. The referee has total power to do this! Further, said inspiration may simply be the picture on the card, or the text, or a part of the picture or part of the text! 

Hex Stocker Instructions: 

  • Pull a random card! The hex is whatever color card you pulled! Roll a d12, the result is how many connected hexes are also that color! (Colours in magic are associated with specific lands: White = plain, Red = mountain, Green = forest, Black  = Swamp, Blue = Island- so whatever colour a hex is - it is that type of landscape). 
  • A basic land card will give you a very nice visual description of the d12 coloured hexes you generated. It doesn't seem possible to get a random basic land card with scryfall (I think because it only recognised each type as one card with lots of different reprints). To overcome this, on the scryfall website get a totally random card, then click on its set description, then in the search bar for that set write the type of land you need, “Swamp, Island, etc”. You will then get a nice picture of that type of landscape and you can use that for all of the hexes you just generated! You could use different images per hex/or an image for a few hexes. Scrolling through the “Prints” list will give you different basic land cards of that type! 
  • Roll on the following tables to determine what else is in a hex beyond its colour! 
  • Note: Only NPCS, sentients, monsters and spells of the same colour, or of the colour left or right of that colour (see colour wheel) will appear in coloured hexes - bear this in mind when stocking the hexes!  You may need to pull several random cards to get a correctly coloured stocking item! 

Travel Hazards: Each hex has a 25% chance of having some some sort of contextual, environmental hazard that makes traveling through it a strain on resources or possibly deadly! It is up to the referee to determine what exactly that hazard is - using the contents of the hex as inspiration.   

Stocking instructions: Use the following guidelines for populating the map’s hexes. 

  • A town, city or village: The population size is d100xd100. Pull a card until you get a building or structure, this is the base architecture of the settlement. Pull a card until you get a sentient (appropriately coloured) being, this is the people of the settlement. Pull a card until you get one mundane object or artifact and one magical object or artifact - these two things are the basis of the settlement's society. The referee can simplify or complicate this process as needed! See the colour relationship information to determine the relationship the population has with nearby monsters, spells and settlements. 
  • An unusual structure: Pull a card until you get a building or structure - this is the structure! Pull three more cards of any colour, whatever they are - they are inhabiting the structure! Refer to the colour relationship information to determine what those things are doing in the unusual structure! 
  • Monster/s: Pull an appropriate coloured monster card. d4 x d12 of that monster populate the hex! 
  • Sentient/s: Pull an appropriate coloured sentient card. d8 x d20 of those sentient beings are in the hex! Use the desire and colour relationship information to determine what the sentients are doing! 
  • A Spell: Pull an appropriate coloured spell card. That spell has warped/corrupted/changed the basic environment of the hex! It is now a weird and unusual place! A wizard can sense the spell magic here and mediate for a day to fill a spell orb with the spell (the spell stays in the environment though - the land still warped)!
  • A Powerful NPC: A powerful NPC of the hexes colour is in the hex! Use the instructions for generating a Sentient but assume it is a single, particularly powerful, NPC.
  • An artifact: Keep pulling cards until you get an actual "Artifact" card. That artifact is in the hex in a location of the referee's choosing!

Desires and Relationships: 

Desires:

Sentient beings generally have desires! If those desires aren’t obvious to the referee, roll on the table! Sentient’s desires may form the basis of quests for in exchange for said sentients skills, talents, resources, services, etc on completion of a quest.


Relationships :

All beings (sentients in town and the wilds , monsters, wizards) will have relationships with other nearby beings. The type of relationship is determined by the colour, the exact specifics of the relationships is determined by the referee:


  • Beings of the same colour are generally close allies or symbiotes. 

  • Beings of neighboring colours are generally co-operative, trading partners or otherwise tolerable of one another. 

  • Beings of opposite colours generally hate each other and are in open conflict or war. 



Trade:

If a PC requires something from a sentient (in a town or in the wilds), beyond basic equipment, food, water and shelter - roll on the following table to see if they have it/can/will provide it (at the discretion of the referee)!


General Hex Stocking Guidelines:

The methods outlined above will give the referee a basic sketch of each hex - the referee is encouraged to run with that basic sketch and use it as an inspiration to fill in as much detail as needed! If a PC seeks to explore an area in more detail (perhaps wanting to spelunk an unusual structure, or the sewers beneath a settlement, or a cave in a mountain, etc) the referee can combine their knowledge of the hex they are exploring with the "Smaller Places Creation" (Place/Place Stocking tables).


Automated Hex Stocker:














2 comments:

  1. Very handy of you to write this as I'm working on a hex map. Mine is a giant martian desert, but I could easily interpret "forest" as "crater field" or something.

    Took me awhile to figure out how to get to set description on scryfall. The blue/grey box in the upper right doesn't actually look like a link.

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    Replies
    1. Hopefully it can be of use! You could probably lock it to an appropriately martiany/deserty MtG set.

      It took me a bit to work out how to see the land cards too...

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