04-23-2016, 05:52 PM | #1 |
Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: Cumberland, ME
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[Practicum] Procedural World-Building Test Run
Well, it's been a long time since I've haunted these... haunts. But Joe's GURPS blog has managed to drag me back out of my cave. I find what he's doing over there fascinating, both in terms of procedural game-generation and in terms of GM-less gaming as a whole.
While Joe has an outstanding worked example of his procedural world generation over on his blog, I believe he would agree that his own familiarity with the method might grease the wheels when he's working through everything. So, naturally, I got to wondering how it might all look if it were being done by someone whose creative wheels are instead greased by coarse sand and rubber cement. As the poster child for the creatively-impaired, I am deciding to volunteer myself for this experiment. So I'll be using this thread to organize my thoughts as a blindly grope my way through the process. Probably nobody will care, but hopefully the organization will combine with some well-deserved public shaming to produce something akin to understanding in my enfeebled right brain, or, if nothing else, perhaps it will serve as a useful cautionary tale ("Don't do what Walker does") to any who might follow in my footsteps. A handful of points, observations, and intentions, all of questionable value:
Table of Contents Last edited by Landwalker; 04-25-2016 at 03:11 PM. |
04-23-2016, 05:54 PM | #2 |
Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: Cumberland, ME
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Chapter 1: The First Region
Chapter 1: The First Region
Joe's recommendation for starting the first region, if you want a "standard Western Europe-style fantasy world", is to simply declare that region's climate to be either Temperate or Coastal and then move on to the other attributes as normal. So naturally I will be starting off this experiment by disregarding the advice of the system's designer and creating the first region entirely randomly.
And that's our (my) first region! It's certainly an odd-ball one—I've never even heard of elk-folk before. But it's a start, and we'll see where things from here! While it's not much to look at yet, here is the world map to date. Last edited by Landwalker; 04-23-2016 at 07:25 PM. |
04-23-2016, 07:21 PM | #3 |
Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: Cumberland, ME
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Re: [Practicum] Procedural World-Building Test Run
Chapter 2: The First Second Region
With the first region out of the way, it's time to transition into the "adding new regions" rules, which work slightly differently in order to maintain some degree of consistency as the world takes shape. Most of the rules are the same, but climate, terrain, and civilization are slightly tweaked. The first order of business is to decide which direction we're going. Since we started in the arctic north, let's head southerly for this first second region.
That does it for the second region of this world, and the first "add-on" region: A small, alpine riverland playing host to some wealthy and well-settled Snow Elves. As before, a look at the map-in-progress, complete with some farmland around the major settlements. Not sure what they're farming, though, so if anybody who hails from arctic lands wants to offer suggestions as to the local agriculture, I'm all ears. =D |
04-23-2016, 08:29 PM | #4 |
Join Date: Oct 2011
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Re: [Practicum] Procedural World-Building Test Run
If it's genuinely Arctic, then it's overwhelmingly ranching - sheep, goats, yaks, musk oxen; reindeer if you want to get elfy and exotick. Dogs. Berries (blue, huckle, black, goose, rasp, elder, outside possibility of straw) are important because of scurvy (no citrus up there!). Peas, potatoes, and perhaps other roots (turnips, carrots, beets - beets are the other important source of vitamin C if it's not too cold for them). Barley grows fast enough that the short summer growing season can produce a crop. So - no wine and little salad for these elves; mutton, cheese, potatoes and barleybeer or "scotch" whiskey. Thyme and mustard are your spices. Possibly tea.
Last edited by patchwork; 04-23-2016 at 08:36 PM. Reason: spices. |
04-23-2016, 09:18 PM | #5 | |
Join Date: Oct 2015
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Re: [Practicum] Procedural World-Building Test Run
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Potatoes, maybe, but you didn't day eyes. |
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04-24-2016, 01:17 AM | #6 | |
Join Date: Feb 2011
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Re: [Practicum] Procedural World-Building Test Run
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So far, I've had a bit of annoyance with tiny regions popping up frequently. I might tweak them to be 1d6-2 days long... but I should avoid tweaking too much. If I was building it, you'd end up rolling on a geology and erosive forces table or something like that... |
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04-24-2016, 06:24 AM | #7 | |||
Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: Cumberland, ME
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Re: [Practicum] Procedural World-Building Test Run
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The only bone I've thrown in that direction has been a small tweak to allow arid-climate regions to appear in central-latitude parts of the map—Joe's original tables pretty much confine arid land to sub-tropical regions, but considering that most of the continental United States between the Appalachian and Rocky Mountains would be considered arid or semi-arid (never mind parts of central Asia and elsewhere), I made a small tinker to let arid climes sneak into those parts of the world. Of course, in order for that to even matter, I have to get out of this frosty alpine locale first. I do agree that tiny regions might be a smidge too common given their "one day of travel" size—statistically they'll make up just over a quarter of all regions, after all. I might adopt a 1d6-2 or 1d6-3 "travel span" for them as well, just to let them have a bit of variety. |
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04-24-2016, 06:50 AM | #8 |
Hero of Democracy
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: far from the ocean
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Re: [Practicum] Procedural World-Building Test Run
Having built a map with that system before, I have the following observations:
The sizes can get a little wonky: in particular vast regions take up a huge amount of space. Shape is not specified: I like to make larger versions of a size category long and skinny (length is specified distance), while short ones are fat. One thing you'll notice is that small and large areas give the same number all the time. Direction is not specified. Nor is which area is considered 'adjacent'. When faced with a decision I actually rolled to see which area would be considered adjacent. You can also use 'quantum positioning' to ensure certain shapes, like mountain ranges, are kept: if its another mountain, continue the chain. If not, stick it off to the side. I built a tool to make rolling up these maps easier. Ultimately, the map builder does NOT work without human intervention, and its stronger for that fact.
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Be helpful, not pedantic Worlds Beyond Earth -- my blog Check out the PbP forum! If you don't see a game you'd like, ask me about making one! |
04-24-2016, 08:38 AM | #9 |
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: The Land of Enchantment
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Re: [Practicum] Procedural World-Building Test Run
So Saami are "elfly and exotic"?
Actually... yeah I guess they are...aren't they?
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04-24-2016, 08:46 AM | #10 |
Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: Cumberland, ME
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Re: [Practicum] Procedural World-Building Test Run
Chapter 3: The Second Second Region
Alright, it's time to move this long some more. Get excited. Or don't. According to my dice roller, the actual plan is "Get cold." For the next region, I'm going to plan to keep moving south, past Snow Elf River, but depending on what kind of results I get I may decide to invoke ericthered's "quantum positioning" rule. But let's see how things turn out!
Well, that was fun... let's do another one! Chapter 3a: The Other One
The World So Far |
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