I've been reading a bit about this stuff again, and seeing things I want to try. Particularly at Welsh Piper's site I really like his take on atlas, region, and subhex sheets, and his technique for generating terrain.

Thing is I want to tweak the latter and use a randomizer to determine hex terrain (I also picked up Vornheim and drop dice look neat), and I find myself wanting hexes to be seven subhexes tall for various reasons.

I'm using 6 mile hexes and I like the idea that I could start the party in the center and not need to change sheets more than once per in-game day. I'm also looking to fit two subhexes outside the hex on the sheet, since the random encounter system I'm working on picks an origin hex from nearby, and I might need to make encounter checks from the edge of a hex.

TL;DR: How would one go about making or obtaining custom subhex or region sheets?

Relevant links:
http://www.welshpiper.com/hex-templates/
http://www.welshpiper.com/hex-based-campaign-design-part-1/





On the drop-dice thing, I was thinking of making all subhexes start as the primary terrain. Then you drop dice for the others. 3d8 for the secondary, 2d6 for the tertiary, 1d4 for the wildcard, -1 to each die (or just ignore the highest value). Position determines where you place stuff, number determines how much you place. Seems like it should work out okay for a 37-subhex sheet.

I'm attaching the mostly finished subhex map. I didn't number the hexes, since this is probably the finest scale I'll be working with.

I'm struggling a bit with the regional map. I'm hoping for seven hexes here too (subhexes contain about a day's travel from the center to the edge; for the region it's a week from the center to the edge), and I'll be numbering the hexes (so I can label the subhex sheets) on this one. I'm having a lot more trouble lining things up in this version, for whatever reason.

Attaching the revised day sheet. A full day from the center sets the hex at 9 subhexes tall. Also attaching my week sheet. I've got the sneaking suspicion that things aren't aligned perfectly, but it's probably close enough for me. The next level up will be a month sheet, with about a month of travel from the center to the edge.

And here's the month sheet.

Some drop-dice generated coastlines on the month sheet.

Rough rules:

1) Roll d4s (I've been using 4d4) on the sheet. Draw a line through that curves that many times. A 1 is kind of like a C, a 2 is kind of like an S, a 3 like a 3 or M. Ignore 4s.
2) Coastlines don't criss-cross. Erase where they do. You can put land on either side of the line and erase whichever tangents at the intersection that you wish. This in mind, you want the most land you can get.
3) Roll d20s (I've been using 3d20) on the sheet. On land? Place that many spaces of water. On water? Place that many spaces of land. If you can get new land to touch old land, do so. If you can get new water to touch old water, do so. If you can cross the lines between week sheets with these objects, do so.

Now to get more detail, you break out the week sheet. Roll 3d6 and repeat step 3 from the month sheet. Do this only in sheets that already have previously established coastline. As you change the coast in the week sheets, do the same for the month sheet.

The result looks like the samples I've attached. In coastsample, it looks like I missed E4. It would probably be good to lower opacity or line weights on these things. I also had a hard time seeing my pencil marks on the week sheet. Coastsample1 was an especially good result, but I might flip the land and water on that one if I use it. Either way, the shapes in the upper middle and upper right portions were a nice surprise.

Working on random terrain generation now. Here's a sample using the current rules. Not 100% on it though. Got some weird edges where features butted up against square corners and stuff.

My fiancee tried her hand at the (now more or less finished) rules for month sheet terrain generation.

Quote from: RulesPick a blank square on the month sheet. Drop 3d10, 3d8, and 3d4 on the week sheet all at once. Feel free to nudge or reroll any that fall out of bounds. Remove any d10s that read "10," d8s that read "8," or d4s that read "4." On the month sheet, place terrain in spaces that correspond with where the dice landed on the week sheet. Fill as many hexes as the number on the die indicates. Finally, fill any remaining hexes with plains.

Each die represents a different terrain type, depending on the distance between the month sheet square you chose and the coast. In a coastal square, d10s stand for wetlands, d8s for forest, and d4s for hills. In a square that borders a coastal square, d10s stand for forest, d8s for mountains, and d4s for hills. In a square that does not border a coastal square, d10s stand for desert, d8s for hills, and d4s for mountains.