Saturday Q&A (jun 22)

Jonathan in Washington State writes,

Regarding No Empty Hexes,

This is stuff I've been thinking about a lot lately as I try (O So Hard) to draw my own "hex maps."  I rather hate working with hexes, and trying to put the real world onto hex paper is a drag as is. But STOCKING the hexes?

Oh, boy.

But, yes, if you don't you just end up with miles and miles of emptiness. I've done some hiking in 'wilderness' areas: you encounter things! Not just animals, but interesting terrain, obstacles, things that would be good to harvest (if I was in a "harvesting" type of mood, rather than just a hiker). None of which is reflected in the game instructions. Overland journeys are pretty boring (in D&D) when all you're doing is rolling three times for a possible encounter and coming up empty.

So, I like your four categories (threat, supply, knowledge, deliverance). If I remember, you do your hexes at a 20 mile scale, right? I've been doing 3 mile scale lately, mainly because it allows me to put some space in between neighboring townships. But also because you can have a LOT of stuff in a 3 mile radius! A lot of stuff can happen to someone over the course of an hour's walk! But, man...that's a TON of hexes to stock.

Maxwell in California writes,

With regard to Wilderness Generation and your recent post, the idea of dividing hex contents into that which can be searched for and that which can't (or needn't) is a good one. I also like the idea of, if you'll pardon my paraphrase, exhausting a hex's capacity to randomly generate contents ("after that, the contents of the hex are more or less what they are") -- at least with regard to a specific thing that can be searched for.

I feel like my biggest weakness as a DM is exploration play ,which applies to the wilderness most of all, but often to the urban as well. Have lotsa trouble coming up with things on the fly in the unbound environment, even when I try and keep principles in mind like "have them find SOMETHING interesting" and "offer them choices about which way to go". So even though you've stated a few times on the wiki page that this generator isn't intended for use during play, I feel I may end up trying it for that, even if that requires building something out along similar lines myself (since the climate my players are currently in is not the temperate European one).

Answer: I think it should be possible to plumb the depths of the generator for in-game play, I just wouldn't recommend using a die roll when actually DMing., because it probably wouldn't fit the moment. As a DM, you want to have things happen that are logical to what the players are doing, and ought to be seeing, in the environment. I have to make the game random because I can't be the DM and the Player at the same time. If the DM is a die roll, then as the player I can address what to do without giving myself a break.

Lance in Louisiana writes,

I need help coming up with a name for a fantasy language/ethnicity. The language group is equivalent to real world gothic(visigoth and ostrogoth) and some of the modern tribes and kingdoms are called the galanese, the karganites, the ausdran, the andar, the hangall, and the hargan, all derive from a common (gothic) ancestry, and the equivalent of the real world East Germans are called the vanitar. I'm pulling from several conflicting sources, and none of them are consistent or give in depth treatment to the ancient tribes and I just cant figure a good term for these related peoples in general.

Answer: from chatGPT, feeding your request to me verbatim:

Gotharic ... name retains a clear connection to the gothic roots and feels both ancient and expansive, suitable for a broad ethnic and linguistic group. Valdaric ... combining elements of "Vanitar" with a gothic feel, suggesting a strong, unified heritage. Galtharic ... merging "gothic" with "galanese," highlights the cultural blend and historical depth of the people. Thuranic, inspired by historical Gothic names with a hint of fantasy flair, this term feels both ancient and unique. Gothlian, a blend of gothic with a more fluid, fantasy like suffix, creating a nem that suggests a rich cultural tapestry.

Funny thing about the program: the more search parameters given, the more exacting the question, the more details added, the better the response. One reason that most feel the program isn't very impressive is because they've been trained to keep their answers short for the old google format. The more search terms you add to google, the less valuable the search is; chat is the reverse. To produce a really good written paragraph, giving the sort of specific knowledge that Lance gave — "east" Germans, the name of the kingdoms, the real world tribal sources and so on, allows a great detailed answer of just the sort google cannot provide. And since, for D&D, "accuracy" is a meaningless concept, it's like the program was specifically designed for this game.

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Thank you for your contributions.  If readers would like to reply to the above, or wish to ask a question or submit observations like those above, please submit to my email, alexiss1@telus.net.  Those giving a $3 donation to my Patreon, https://www.patreon.com/user?u=3015466, can submit questions directly to me in the chat room there.

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