Quote from: Dumarest;985104Seems like you don't,  actually.

Geographic illiteracy kills.

Quote from: mAcular Chaotic;9844331) How do you decide what to put in the hexes? Not just environments, but points of interest.

I am a big fan of random tables.

I like to roll stuff, then get creative to make sense of WTF just showed up. For me, it helps build the setting.

Quote from: mAcular Chaotic;984433But surely people have some order to the process?

I put the main city in the center of the page.

Quote from: mAcular Chaotic;9844332) So how do those sub-hexes work with the game? How are you supposed to use them?

I do some deeper detail per hex, but I don't subdivide the hexes. At most, I may detail the locale of various bits with a cardinal direction within the hex.

When they travel through the hex how do you decide which part of it they see? Or do you ask for directions to explore and just give the closest thing?

Quote from: mAcular Chaotic;984793Hey, I just had an idea. What if you took a real life place off a map and converted it into a hexcrawl format.

That would handle making "realistic" terrain.

Thats fairly common.

Quote from: mAcular Chaotic;984811Now if only there was a tool that would convert a real map into a hexmap.

Someone made a hex grid plugin for GIMP that will overlay a grid as a new layer on the image.

Someone else created a set of RPG style hex tiles to use with it. The map example I used was made with those tiles.

Quote from: rgrove0172;985079It is a matter of taste of course. Some gamers enjoy the kind of fantasy where an ice castle rests in the middle of a vast desert or mountains run straight edged along a massive sea cliff or something. That can be cool sure but I prefer a more realistic environment so I try to follow more or less natural laws.

Some gamers need to fucking get a brain. No seriously. "Wahh this terrain feature (that happens to be fairly common on Earth) is unrealistic!"

Yes there are some general norms. But that only applies to some regions. And whats norm in one place may be abnormal elsewhere.

Where I used to live the norm was about 6 months of winter, 3 of spring and 3 of fall. Really flat. Where a friend lived heavy fog was the norm.

Quote from: mAcular Chaotic;985144When they travel through the hex how do you decide which part of it they see? Or do you ask for directions to explore and just give the closest thing?

Depends on the scale. Its oft best to stick to generalities if they are just passing through. If they are for some reason focusing on that hex. Generalities might still work. Or you might need to zoom in and change the map scale.

Overall the PCs will see just whats along their general course from point A to B. Especially if they are following roads, trails or divers. Personally I use the overall hex feature as a guideline. So if they are passing through a dense forest hex then I assume thats mostly what they will see passing through that hex every time.

This is also one other reason I keep hexes to 6 miles. Its big enough to allow breaking up movement into segments that match BXs travel and the general terrain makes more sense for an overall pattern in that space. Larger hexes are good for more basic generalities or ease of heavy overland travel. Gave a look at 2e Gamma Worlds map for one example. Some hexes show multiple terrain features even.

Quote from: mAcular Chaotic;985144When they travel through the hex how do you decide which part of it they see? Or do you ask for directions to explore and just give the closest thing?

If the hexes are hand-drawn as in the Wilderlands of High Fantasy maps, there is often a lot of extra detail within the hex I can use. If each hex is an abstract symbol a la the Mystara maps, I generally have to use my imagination, try to visualise it. This is one reason I prefer scales like 1 mile/hex if using abstract symbols - the PCs can usually see into several surrounding hexes so that gives me plenty of info.  

Here's an example of my 1 mile/hex sandbox mapping:



There I've used the abstract symbols to create a topographic type map, I have a good idea how the land lies and can see what it would look like from various locales. I like this sort of map for highly frequented campaign areas, along frequently travelled major roadways and such. Here's Darlene's draft Yggsburgh map for a professional example:

Quote from: Dumarest;985104Seems like you don't,  actually.

Wow because a certain rare feature exists somewhere it is therefore common place and should just appear everywhere. Sure, go ahead, use whatever random method you like to assign it to your game world but  naturally it's still rare. That won't matter to many players or GMs. That's fine. And the snark isn't warranted, it's just my opinion.

Quote from: Omega;985155Some gamers need to fucking get a brain. No seriously. "Wahh this terrain feature (that happens to be fairly common on Earth) is unrealistic!"

Yes there are some general norms. But that only applies to some regions. And whats norm in one place may be abnormal elsewhere.

Where I used to live the norm was about 6 months of winter, 3 of spring and 3 of fall. Really flat. Where a friend lived heavy fog was the norm.

Neither of my examples were anything close to fairly common despite some unrelated pictures posted.

Quote from: Black Vulmea;985122Geographic illiteracy kills.

Iz so glads youze here to smarten usins dumb foke up!

Some of us have only seen 48 of the 50 states, most of Europe and the Med, some of the Middle East, a bit of South and Central America, Canada and Mexico and the Caribbean.

Im no world traveller but illiterate is just an ass-hole slap. Cmon BV.

I'm a little late to the thread, but this is the method I used to populate hex map on my last campaign.

First of all I have a very skeletal idea of the basic pattern of history for the game, so of this doesn't fit your game, make adjustments. Basically, I recount the history of the setting in a series of madlibs, each resulting in a place. I alternate between situations caused by magical / supernatural disasters and how ancient heros dealt with them, and migration patterns, and how that affected the population mix. The point is not to write an elaborate history, but to leave a trail of ruins, artifacts, phenomena, monsters, settlements, etc. that are interrelated.

Magical/supernatural disasters

Magical disaster A occurred at B. Hero C responded by action D, resulting in artifacts/ ruins/ legend/ monster E.

Migration

Race/tribe with culture type A from region B migrated because reason C. It had advantage D over the native population, resulting in E (displacement, conquest, eradication, assimilation) and settlements F, G, H and new culture I.

By the time you've completed 5-10 of these madlibs you've got a lot of history, everything is fairly interconnected, and you have concrete ideas for game able material, places to explores, treasures to find, monsters to fight, cultures to interact with, etc. It's.notmeven that much work. As you go, each location gets keyed into your map. You can also have lots of events occur in one place so it has a rich history.

Then, if you want, you go back to individual places and trace their history from their creation to present day, as they are influenced by events from your history. This way, locations and cultures have layers and the players can mine down into them.

You'll notice I don't make wars the focal point of the history. Part of that is to avoid certain fantasy cliches (my personal flavor choice) and also because wars are more historically impactful when tied to migration patterns or massive magical disasters. In other words, I sort of assume that kingdoms/cities/polities alternate between periods or war and trade, but if one doesn't colonize the other or unleash a magical disaster, its not that impactful.

YMMV

Quote from: rgrove0172;985162Wow because a certain rare feature exists somewhere it is therefore common place and should just appear everywhere. Sure, go ahead, use whatever random method you like to assign it to your game world but  naturally it's still rare. That won't matter to many players or GMs. That's fine. And the snark isn't warranted, it's just my opinion.

I can't help it if you are obstinately ignorant  and choose to remain so.

Quote from: rgrove0172;985172Iz so glads youze here to smarten usins dumb foke up!

Some of us have only seen 48 of the 50 states, most of Europe and the Med, some of the Middle East, a bit of South and Central America, Canada and Mexico and the Caribbean.

Im no world traveller but illiterate is just an ass-hole slap. Cmon BV.

The easiest way to convince us you're not ignorant is to stop saying ignorant things and then trying to defend them.

Quote from: Dumarest;985277I can't help it if you are obstinately ignorant  and choose to remain so.

Laugh, that's just classic. Have a nice day!