The Shrouded Lands: an Open Source Hexcrawl Setting
Posted: Mon Mar 04, 2013 1:36 pm
Here's a hexcrawl setting I've helped develop for a bit over a year now. The hexes are connected up in a lot of ways and contain more detail than you get from the hexcrawl settings I've seen before so they might be useful for people here who want some locations to steal for their own settings.
Compilation: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B6z-iUI ... sp=sharing (it’s gotten too big for Google Drive to let you preview it, if you want to preview it without downloading the PDF you can look at an older version here: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B6z-iUI ... hxalU/edit)
Map: http://img829.imageshack.us/img829/4141/march3map.png
Appendixes (a bit out of date at the moment): https://docs.google.com/document/d/1RSD ... R1Ovg/edit
The overall feel of the setting is melancholic and a bit dark, but still containing a lot of beauty and without being gritty. Some of the main sources of inspiration have included noodling around with D&D canon, the weirder corners of Sword & Sorcery fiction, fairy tales and Arthuriana.
It's all open source so feel free to steal any bits you want, most of them should be pretty easy to slot into your average D&D setting somewhere. If you like it you can add more bits and I'll edit your ideas into the next version of the compilation.
In order to make the size of the setting a bit less daunting, it’s been broken up into regions with the shorter ones coming first so you can read everything there is to know about some of the small regions pretty quickly. Just keep in mind that the more interesting stuff results in other people writing stuff to piggyback off of it so most of the best posts are in the middle of the most content-heavy regions. A good example of this is Hex 29.14, which sparked enough interest that there are now 49 entries about different things in the hex, let me give you a taste:
The City of Shuttered Windows
South of the Kingswood and the Freeholds there lies the City of Shuttered Windows, thick with the dust of ages and the grime of hidden violence. Traders from across the land pass through this city, which is often known by its shortened name of simply 'the Shuttered City'.
The Shuttered City is home to the Temple Indivisible, which worships Alberon, patron deity of the City. The very structure of the city, its stones, walls and peoples, are sacred to their faith. Conversely, the City is a work of blasphemy to the cultists of Dead Tiamat. Legend tells of how the Broken Spear (40.06) was used by Alberon to strike down Tiamat before he tore off each of her five heads. Understandably, the Tiamat cultists of the modern era would give anything to see the City of Shuttered Windows razed to the ground.
It is well known among scholars that the Shuttered City is built on sinking ground. Every year, the foundations of the city slide a few inches deeper into the soft soil. Whether this is a natural phenomenon or a curse that drags it into the jaws of the underworld is a matter of some contention. However, the plain fact is that in order to continue existence, the people of the City must continue to build upwards. At a very rough estimate, it takes around 100 years for a single story of a building to become completely submerged beneath the ground. Thus, the oldest building still above ground today is the Old Council Tower, but only the top floor of the Tower remains visible.
In the City, height is an indicator of social status. The towers and other tall buildings are reserved for citizens, and the highest of them are the domain of the Electors, the Great Families and the Doge. Between these towers are built bridges and causeways, always built in the anticipation that they will one day become roads, and later, tunnels. The lower classes must live in the shadow of the high towers, in the byzantine labyrinth of streets and passages which make up the majority of the City's space. For, despite the long history of sinking, there is no ordered plan for the new construction. People build higher when their lower structures are no longer usable. Roads are built according to a system of petitions and bribes, whose haphazardness is exacerbated by the frequent changes in administration. The upshot of this is that there is no 'ground level' in the City, only a vague continuum from the airiest towers down to the labyrinthine tunnels of the Undercity.
The Undercity is inhabited by the lowliest commoners, the most wretched of whom may spend months or years without seeing sunlight. It is also home to a branch of the Hoard (33.00) of the dwarves, and to the dreaded cult of the Whispering Sisters (29.14.07). The further down one goes, the older the buildings, and the fewer the inhabitants. Many of the very deep streets and buildings have caved in, but others remain. It is said that a pompous beggar named the Squatter King has set himself up in the remains of an ancient iteration of the Doge's Palace. And of course, rumours abound regarding monsters that inhabit the deepest caverns; but certainly none of these monsters have ever been seen up inhabited parts of the Undercity.
Compilation: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B6z-iUI ... sp=sharing (it’s gotten too big for Google Drive to let you preview it, if you want to preview it without downloading the PDF you can look at an older version here: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B6z-iUI ... hxalU/edit)
Map: http://img829.imageshack.us/img829/4141/march3map.png
Appendixes (a bit out of date at the moment): https://docs.google.com/document/d/1RSD ... R1Ovg/edit
The overall feel of the setting is melancholic and a bit dark, but still containing a lot of beauty and without being gritty. Some of the main sources of inspiration have included noodling around with D&D canon, the weirder corners of Sword & Sorcery fiction, fairy tales and Arthuriana.
It's all open source so feel free to steal any bits you want, most of them should be pretty easy to slot into your average D&D setting somewhere. If you like it you can add more bits and I'll edit your ideas into the next version of the compilation.
In order to make the size of the setting a bit less daunting, it’s been broken up into regions with the shorter ones coming first so you can read everything there is to know about some of the small regions pretty quickly. Just keep in mind that the more interesting stuff results in other people writing stuff to piggyback off of it so most of the best posts are in the middle of the most content-heavy regions. A good example of this is Hex 29.14, which sparked enough interest that there are now 49 entries about different things in the hex, let me give you a taste:
The City of Shuttered Windows
South of the Kingswood and the Freeholds there lies the City of Shuttered Windows, thick with the dust of ages and the grime of hidden violence. Traders from across the land pass through this city, which is often known by its shortened name of simply 'the Shuttered City'.
The Shuttered City is home to the Temple Indivisible, which worships Alberon, patron deity of the City. The very structure of the city, its stones, walls and peoples, are sacred to their faith. Conversely, the City is a work of blasphemy to the cultists of Dead Tiamat. Legend tells of how the Broken Spear (40.06) was used by Alberon to strike down Tiamat before he tore off each of her five heads. Understandably, the Tiamat cultists of the modern era would give anything to see the City of Shuttered Windows razed to the ground.
It is well known among scholars that the Shuttered City is built on sinking ground. Every year, the foundations of the city slide a few inches deeper into the soft soil. Whether this is a natural phenomenon or a curse that drags it into the jaws of the underworld is a matter of some contention. However, the plain fact is that in order to continue existence, the people of the City must continue to build upwards. At a very rough estimate, it takes around 100 years for a single story of a building to become completely submerged beneath the ground. Thus, the oldest building still above ground today is the Old Council Tower, but only the top floor of the Tower remains visible.
In the City, height is an indicator of social status. The towers and other tall buildings are reserved for citizens, and the highest of them are the domain of the Electors, the Great Families and the Doge. Between these towers are built bridges and causeways, always built in the anticipation that they will one day become roads, and later, tunnels. The lower classes must live in the shadow of the high towers, in the byzantine labyrinth of streets and passages which make up the majority of the City's space. For, despite the long history of sinking, there is no ordered plan for the new construction. People build higher when their lower structures are no longer usable. Roads are built according to a system of petitions and bribes, whose haphazardness is exacerbated by the frequent changes in administration. The upshot of this is that there is no 'ground level' in the City, only a vague continuum from the airiest towers down to the labyrinthine tunnels of the Undercity.
The Undercity is inhabited by the lowliest commoners, the most wretched of whom may spend months or years without seeing sunlight. It is also home to a branch of the Hoard (33.00) of the dwarves, and to the dreaded cult of the Whispering Sisters (29.14.07). The further down one goes, the older the buildings, and the fewer the inhabitants. Many of the very deep streets and buildings have caved in, but others remain. It is said that a pompous beggar named the Squatter King has set himself up in the remains of an ancient iteration of the Doge's Palace. And of course, rumours abound regarding monsters that inhabit the deepest caverns; but certainly none of these monsters have ever been seen up inhabited parts of the Undercity.
