Random Wilderness Generator (RWG)

The Random Wilderness Generator is a tool designed for use during gameplay when the dungeon master needs an outdoor starting point for an unprepared setting or wants to introduce randomness into the game party's environment. It's intended to be an useful resource for solo play and for training oneself as a DM. When using this generator, the initial location of the player characters is always in an area where no habitation or infrastructure is present, an unknown distance from civilisation. The nature of starting hex depends upon the steepness of terrain, the local hydrography, the local vegetation and the climate type. From these details, the degree of threat to the players is determined, as well as the resources which they may put to use, permitting them opportunities to become informed about the world they're in.

Because the wilderness is a much more complicated arena than the limited passages and chambers of an underground dungeon, we should not look to simplified die rolls in order to achieve even the bare whiff of similitude, which must be the goal here. On the other hand, while a functionally real world setting might be created with a highly complex computer generated approach, we'd be at the mercy of that system once it was made, without the ability to spontaneously add results, shift the balance of results, or see directly the step-by-step process of the world being made before us. This may require the consulting of several tables to produce an answer, but as this generator isn't intended to be used during game play, we have the time to study and adapt ourselves to the system as we see the setting unfold.

Links to this page, and throughout this wiki to other dungeon generation pages, include the "RWG" designation and will be categorized under "Random World."

Terrain

Because the relative lay of the land affects so many other things: the placement of rivers and lakes, the presence of vegetation and the nature of creatures that exist there, as well the practicality of settlement and land use, we must begin with the terrain's relief — the heights and depths of the landforms present, relative both to sea level and to other forms within the same unit of area. For our purposes, this is a hex that's 6⅔ miles in diameter, with an area of approximately 38 square miles.

Terrain Relief

1st roll	variation (ft.)	type	description	next hex adjustment		cluster size
				up	down
—	0	sea	coastline passes through multiple points of the hex.	01-30	—	—
01-02	50	flat	level, lacking undulations or slopes, with slow water drainage.	01-06	91-00	—
03-08	100	rolling hills	gentle to moderate, with occasional variations in elevation.	01-09	87-00	6-18
09-32	200	undulating hills	moderate to high slopes, with notable changes and gulleys.	01-12	83-00	5-15
33-70	400	foothills	significant dips and rises, with irregular steep slopes and low stretches.	01-14	79-00	4-13
71-85	800	rugged hills	commonly steep throughout, with rock outcrops, narrow valleys and uneven level areas.	01-15	76-00	3-12
86-94	1500	round mts	abrupt slopes and bluffs, with rounded peaks, rocky ridges and ravines.	01-16	73-00	3-10
95-98	3000	mountains	dramatic rocky ledges, with rugged cliffs, canyons and sparse vegetation.	01-17	70-00	3-9
99	4500	craggy peaks	precipitous climbs, jagged peaks, rock faces, deep gorges, absence of vegetation.	01-18	67-00	3-8
00	6000	alpen	sharp ridges, sheer rock faces, glaciers and snowfields, constant winds.	—	63-00	3-7

1st roll is only applied when initially entering the generator. The chance distribution is based on the characters having emerged from a subterranean lair or dungeon, which have the highest likelihood of occurring in undulating, rugged and foothills. Once this roll is made, it can be ignored, unless the players are teleported or perhaps pass through a gate.

Variation describes the mean difference between the highest point and the lowest point of the hex; as this exact number need not be known, it's merely additional information to aid the DM in visualising the approximate precipitousness of the landscape. Note that this number in feet is not in reference to sea level.

Type adjusts the variety and nature of things discovered in the hex, while description is a loose approximation of general features found throughout the hex. The specific placement of slopes, dips, depressions, rises, bluffs, ledges, canyons, cliffs and so on is left to the interpretation of the DM in describing the hex appearance to the party.

Next hex adjustment describes a d100 roll that's employed when the players exit their present hex and move into an ungenerated hex, meaning any hex that's still blank on the map; this roll is also used when an ungenerated hex is viewed from afar, sufficiently enough to recognise the terrain relief. Only the generated hex that's left is used when making this roll. If the number rolled falls between the "up" and "down" adjustments, then the new hex has the same type as the old hex.

For example, leaving a hex with undulating hills into a blank hex, a d100 is rolled; if the die roll indicates a 12 or less, then the next hex increases "variation" upwards; in this case, indicating "foothills." If the result is 83 or more, then "variation" is reduced, indicating "rolling hills." If the number equals 13 to 82, then the adjoining hex has the same "variation," and is again "undulating hills." A rule may or may not be adopted in which a die roll of "01" increases the variation by two degrees, from undulating hills to flat, while a die roll of "00" decreases it two degrees, from undulating hills to rugged hills.

The next hex adjustments intentionally seek to reduce the variation from hex to hex, to produce large, flat areas; contrariwise, those wishing to build a land-based campaign may opt to decrease the likelihood of sea occurring, while an islands campaign would increase the likelihood of producing sea.

Cluster size indicates the number of hexes that must exist contiguously with that type, at the point where it is encountered for the first time, regardless of rolls. For example, on a flat plain, rolling hills are indicated. At this point, 4d4+2 is rolled, indicating the number of adjoined, contiguous hexes have "rolling hills." Rolls for each new, ungenerated hex can be made, allowing the table to create new hexes normally — but if it should happen that the cluster is cut off by die rolls before reaching the rolled number that there must be, then the die roll is overruled and that hex is designated as what it must be.

Each cluster therefore must be carefully accounted for as it occurs; inevitably, the presence of multiple clusters should produce die rolls for new hexes to see which cluster it belongs to, rather than according to the exit hex. While complicated, however, by making good notes and giving careful thought to the next hex, managing this concept is possible. If it should happen that a cluster should be forsaken, perhaps because the sea cuts it off, or another cluster, then always grant dominance to the cluster or feature with the lowest "variation."