Random Map: Inhabitants

Randomly-generated countries need people to live in them!  Last time we looked at rolling up a country, terrain was the focus.  Today, let's see who lives there.

First I'll roll up some random terrain from that table as we go through an example country:

• Ridges run northeast-southwest that can easily be walked along.
• Deep ravines run between the ridges with cascading streams.
  
• The sea is to the east, a rocky coast with waterfalls and few safe landings.
  

There are four species of people in Signs in the Wilderness: the Colonial city-people who tend to live by the sea, the roaming Giants who can eke out a living in more marginal terrain, the Humans who farm and hunt best in lightly wooded valleys with lakes, and the tree-dwelling Goblins who prefer swamps and thick forests.

Roll three times to see which peoples have the most effect on this country:

Locals (d20)
1-3	colonials
4-9	giants
10-13	goblins
14-20	humans

For our example country I got giants, humans, and humans.  If you get the same result twice, that's fine.

Terrain makes a difference to these people: goblins thrive in swamps but don't do much with island chains, for example.  For each people result you got, check to see what their modifier is in this land:

Modifier	+1 for each of	-1 for each of
colonials	warm coast, harbor, rivers near the sea	far north, inland, no easy way to sea
giants	highlands, ponds, open country	thick woods, swamps, far south
goblins	dense forests, swamps, cliffs	open country, islands, deserts
humans	lakes, wide valleys, semi-wooded	rugged mts., swamps, deserts

Looking at the modifiers for giants, I have to make some decisions about what this country is like.  I think I'd like it to be densely forested (a -1 for giants) but I'd also like the ridges to be easily walkable because they're thinly forested up near the treeline (which seems like highlands, a +1 for giants).  Net, that's a +0 for giants.

For the humans in this land, they get a -1 due to the ruggedness of the ridges and ravines, and I don't think any of their other modifiers apply.

From this point on, each of the four peoples has their own table.  If one of your results was Humans, roll on the Humans table plus their modifier, and so on for whichever other peoples you got.

Humans (2d6 + modifier)
≤2	humans once lived here, Tales of nomads skilled in folk magick, natural phenomena ascribed to human powers
3	few scattered towns warring over resources, Meager Remnant of a once-great tribe
4-5	a struggling Tribe among many Ruins
6	rival Towns on brink of war, forbidden zone
7	ancient ruin, strife with newly-arrived Tribe
8	thinly-settled Hunting grounds newly taken by a strong tribe, many burned towns
9	Tribe of neighboring country recently invaded
10-11	Trade center, many other towns, roads
12	Forbidden kingdom, outsiders put to death, trade via trusted intermediaries
13+	Nation whose Power extends to other lands, collecting tribute and tolls, raiding to seize captives and suppress enemies

Because we got humans twice up above, I'm rolling twice here on the Humans table, both times applying their -1 modifier due to the terrain.

• The first result is 5: a struggling Tribe among many Ruins.  Those ruins might be from other people about to be rolled up, or they might be from other people that used to live here.  Maybe they're from an older civilization that once inhabited this land.
• Next, an 8: thinly-settled Hunting grounds newly taken by a strong tribe, many burned towns.  There's conflict in this land already.  Not sure if the burned towns belong to the struggling tribe or if they're someone else's, maybe a tribe that was entirely driven out?
  

Colonials (2d6 + modifier)
≤1	stories of an Expedition that came through, artifacts, possibly survivors
2-4	imperial Guns & trade goods, no colonials
5	forgotten town of religious exiles, ruins of a fort/mine
6	trading post of a Company
7	Fort, abandoned settlements
8	two of: trading post, fort, mission
9-10	largely controlled by a far-off Company: resource settlements, trading posts, old fort
11-12	several settlements among many ruins
13+	one of the chief surviving Colonies and its outlying settlements/forts/&c.

Today's example country doesn't have any significant colonial presence, but as you can see from the table, colonial influence can range anywhere from mere stories of an earlier explorer to a major colonial city.

Giants (2d6 + modifier)
≤2	giants are gone, landforms said to be built by them, Tales of wanderers
3	a Mission abandoned by the colonials, now run by the descendants of its students
4-5	scattered trappers, fishers, herders, traders
6	many wandering Traders
7	perilous ruins of a dead House
8	two Rival houses, contested border
9	three houses: Weak, Strong, and Ruined
10-11	a Mighty ruling house, several smaller ones
12+	a powerful Alliance of three great houses

The giants in this country have two rival houses with a contested border between them.  I think that's enough groups here to cause plenty of interesting conflict with shifting alliances: two rival Houses, a strong Tribe, and a struggling Tribe whose towns were burned down.

Goblins (2d6 + modifier)
≤1	goblins once lived here, forbidden woods, Tales that confuse them with ghosts
2-5	one powerful village in a Secluded region
6-8	three main Villages compete for hunting grounds, prey on livestock of others
9-12	Populous, good hunting grounds, outsiders fear this land, a few giantish traders
13+	interspersed villages of three major Clans, people travel from far away to study, trade, visit renowned hermits

Each of these tables has a result for mere stories and legends, for a country that doesn't really know who those people are, but remembers bits and pieces.  Tales of goblins from long ago tend to confuse them with ghosts or other strange beings that come from forbidden woods in the night and prey on settlements.

Legends of humans tend to see them as some kind of magicians who control things like the weather.  A country that hasn't seen humans since long before the apocalypse might ascribe a cold north wind to hidden humans up in the passes.

Distorted memories of giants lead to stories of them shaping the land, saying this hill was raised by the giants, or this canyon was carved by them.

Go here to roll up some terrain, then roll to see who lives there.  (The random roller here doesn't properly take the modifiers into account.)

Click here for random inhabitants.
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Giants and their House-Corporations

Giants always come back to their House.  As trappers and herders, giants spend most of the year on their own, only seeing others every once in a while.  But each spring, they come back to their ancestral home.

The House is like a corporation, thought of as a person that can own property.  It is a physical structure, but also a kin-group and a territory.  The house is a symbol of the lineage that gathers there and is governed by its highest-ranking members.  (Most of the time, only those of the first rank live at the house, sustained by tribute from lower-ranking giants.) 

Each House has a sigil, marked at the house and at the boundaries of its land.  The name of the house describes the appearance of its sign using specialized terminology, names like Lazy Deer, Diamond Walking Snake, or Smoke Over Turkey.

Membership comes with rights to gain food from the land on your appointed circuit.  Roll twice to see what kind of harvest rights are available:

Harvest Rights (d10)
1-3	Gathering, diving, beach-combing (d10) 1: clams/mussels, 2: walnuts, 3: acorns, 4: snails, 5: mushrooms, 6: eggs, 7: persimmons/huckleberries, 8: crab apples, 9: carrots/dandelions, 10: seals/walruses
4-5	Trapping, snares, bait, pit traps with stakes (d10) 1-2: jackrabbits, 3: geese, 4: otters, 5: beaver, 6: ducks, 7: squirrels, 8: turkeys, 9: raccoons, 10: goblins
6-7	Fishing with stone weirs, basket traps, spears (d10) 1-2: trout, 3-4: salmon, 5-6: crawdads, 7: bass, 8: eel, 9: herring, 10: river shrimp
8-9	Grazing herd animals for meat, cheese, wool (d10) 1-2: llamas, 3-4: alpacas, 5-6: bactrian camels, 7-8: yaks, 9-10: colonial longhorn cattle
10	Driving stampedes off cliffs, through narrow defiles (d10) 1-3: buffalo, 4-6: caribou, 7-8: bighorn sheep, 9-10: strange herd animals

taking the herd to good pastures

Wander about in search of food, but do not wander too far.  Each house governs a territory 20 to 100 miles across (30-160 km), enough room for hundreds to find food.

Border (d20)
1-3	Sea, large river, lake
4-6	Waterfall, rapids, cliff
7-9	Swamp, salt marsh
10-12	Ridgeline, desert
13-14	edge of the Forest
15-16	low range of Hills
17-19	Rock, standing stone
20	remnant of a lost Civilization

For each border, roll to see what the relations with the neighbors across that border are like.

Neighbors (d20)
1-3	long friendship
4-6	wary truce
7-9	enemies
10-12	paying tribute
13-14	peaceful trade
15-16	died/emigrated
17-20	shaky alliance against new enemy

stalking buffalo while wearing animal disguises

Near the house are a few places important to the people here:

Nearby Site (d6)
1	ancient Tree, alone on a grassy hill
2	deep Sinkhole with water, a cenote
3	natural Pillar of stone, a kigilyakh
4	large Cavern, difficult to reach
5	long-abandoned House
6	Ruin of an old kingdom

Roll to see the significance of each site.

Importance (d6)
1	Shamanist rituals take place there
2	forgotten Treasure hidden there
3	great Battle was fought there long ago
4	place of meeting Enemies under truce
5	Healing is said to happen there
6	new Religious movement gathers

The house itself is in a defensive position, used as a refuge in times of war.

Site (d6)
1-2	high on a Pinnacle, steep steps cut in rock
3-4	raised earthen Mound, riddled with ancient passageways
5-6	steep-sided Hill, only one shallow approach

But the house is also meant to be a gathering place for its hundreds of people.

(d6)	Around	Structure
1	stone wall 5 feet high (1.5 m)	stone/adobe walls with no gates, only ladders
2	steep-banked stream	raised high up on massive wooden pillars
3	hidden triplines and pit traps	circular stone wall, open-air courtyard
4	many large wooden spikes	roofed pavilion, open on all sides
5	hilltop sentries, signal fires	fenced-in garden with fruit trees
6	wide circle of standing stones	mission once built by the Colonials

The house itself has a few features to make life easier for the indolent first-rank members, or to support the annual gathering.

At the House (d8)
1	Lodge for the reclusive first-ranking members
2	open space for Games or the Moonlit Play
3	Cellar for storage of food, ice, or valuables
4	Granary or Treasure House up on stilts
5	cistern/cenote full of Drinking Water
6	lookout Tower, occupied at all times
7	Workshop for carving, flintknapping, weaving
8	Racks for stretching hides, drying fish/tobacco

a time for serious debate

Whether they're at the house or out on their rounds, the people of this House have been debating serious matters for the year ahead.

Topics of Debate (d12)
1	Fear that the War shall be reignited.
2	Whether the Prophecy be true.
3	Violent dispute with neighboring people.
4	Strange Travelers in these lands.
5	New religion in the lower ranks of the house.
6	Too many people; must establish a new House.
7	A great Deed to restore their dwindling glory.
8	Access to colonial arms, food, trade.
9	Vengeance for an ancient Crime against them.
10	Role in a greater Alliance of houses.
11	Risk of pursuing a great Opportunity.
12	A leader who cannot be trusted.

---

Let's roll up a random House, Dead Broken Fence:

• People here gather persimmons and drive bighorn sheep into narrow places where they can be hunted.
• Long friendship with those who live beyond the marsh.
• Shaky alliance with those who live over the hills, allied against a new enemy.
• A new religious movement among the people gathers in secret at a nearby abandoned House.
• Meetings under truce are conducted at the standing stone.
• Sentries keep watch from hilltops near the house.
• The house itself is raised on mighty wooden pillars atop a steep-sided hill.
• At the house there is a separate lodge for the first rank, a cistern for collecting rainwater, and a place for stretching and drying hides.
• People debate whether the House has grown too large and shall have to split off a new House.

Roll up your own giantish House:

Click here for a random House.
food to harvest
border relations
nearby sites
site of the house
around the house
structure of the house
features at the house
matter for debate

Real-time Coastal Hatching

You've probably seen old maps with little lines along the coast, right?  Back in the days of ink and engravings those were tedious to draw.  I've tried a lot of different methods to add this kind of hatching to maps in Photoshop, but they've all been slow.

What I'm going to show you here is applied in real time.  Once you've set up your layer style, you can just draw and the hatching is applied automatically.

These instructions are for Photoshop, so if you're using a different drawing program, let me know what you do differently.

Mask a fill layer

Start off with a simple fill layer.  This is a layer that's already full of a single color, with a mask that lets you show or hide it as you like.  (Go to the menu: Layer > New Fill Layer > Solid Color.)

Draw the shape of the land in the mask to reveal the color.  (By default the mask will show color everywhere, which is the opposite of what you want.  There are many ways to switch the mask to hide everything: one is to select the mask and hit Ctrl-I to invert it.)

Noisy inner shadow

Open up the layer style.  (Right-click on the name of the layer and go to Blending Options, or just double-click on the layer.)

Add an inner shadow to show the edge of the coastline.  The default settings make a soft-edged shadow, which isn't what we want here.  Turn the Choke most of the way up (so the shadow is mostly opaque) and set the Size to just a few pixels.  Add a little bit of Noise (I'm using 10% for this demo).

Notice how the white area is hidden here?  Put the layer in a folder, then set that folder's blending mode to Multiply.  That means anything in white will be transparent — this will be important later.

Stroke hatching

Next we're going to add the little lines that stick out into the water.  You'll need to draw a hatching pattern to do this, or you can use mine if you like.  (Non-commercial purposes only.)

If you draw one yourself, make sure the left and right edges match (and the top and bottom edges) so that it can tile seamlessly.  (I could do a tutorial on making seamless textures if you guys want.)

Open up your hatching tile as a separate image, make it into a pattern, then head back to the map.  (Edit > Define Pattern.)

In the layer style, add a Stroke.  For the Fill Type, choose Pattern, and select the hatching pattern you just defined.  Set the Blend Mode to Difference.  This will draw a band of that pattern around the edge of the coastline.

Click the Overprint check box for this stroke, so the hatching will be drawn on top of the other effects we'll add soon.

This is ok, but it's not great.  Ideally we'd like the hatching to be bolder near the land and less intense further out in the water.  To do that, we'll need a few more copies of the pattern.

Add another Stroke just like the previous one, but increase the size.

Then add a third Stroke the same way.  (You might need to tinker with the size and opacity a bit to get an effect you like.)

Reversed outer glow to hide hatching

We're getting closer, but the outer edge is still too regular.  We need something further out from the coast that's fuzzy and noisy to cover up the edges of the hatching.

An outer glow or a drop shadow would be perfect, but those usually are stronger near the object, fading off further away.  Thankfully, we can invert the direction.

(Outer Glow and Drop Shadow both have a similar effect here.  I ended up using both on my own image for finer control, but you can go it with just one.)

Add an Outer Glow, then reverse the contour.

If you don't already have a reversed contour in that little menu, just click on the contour itself and drag the handles to reverse it, like in this image.

When we're done the outer glow will need to be white, but for now, make it red.

Adjust the size and spread until the outer glow is strongest out at the far edge of the hatching, fading off as the glow approaches the land.  Add some noise for roughness, then it should look something like this:

Notice how that red band is covering up the outer part of the hatching?  That's exactly what we want, if only the red band were invisible.

Change its color from red to white, and it'll disappear.  (It disappears because this layer is inside a folder set to Multiply.  Using the Multiply blending mode, white manifests as transparency.)

That's it for the coastline.  Draw the rest of the owl and you get something like this:

Summary

1. Make a hatching pattern from a separate image.
   
2. Draw the land shape using a fill layer.
3. Put the fill layer in a folder that has Blend (Multiply).
   
4. Add a layer style: Inner Shadow: high Choke, some Noise.
5. Add a Stroke: Fill (Pattern), Blend (Difference), Overprint.
6. Add two more of that Stroke, each one with a larger Size.
7. Add a red Outer Glow: Contour (reversed), some Noise, moderate Spread, enough Size so it's out at the edge of the hatching.
8. Change the Outer Glow to white.
   

Once you've made your layer style, you can save it or just copy it from one map to another.  You only have to do those steps once; from then on, all your coastal hatching can be done in real time.

Are there any steps you'd like to see in more detail?  Let me know, either here or on the subreddit, and I'll add them in.

Rolling up Today's Campaign

Want to see how a campaign is made?  Or just want to join us for some adventure?

I'm starting up a new play-by-post game over on Discord.

The first step is choosing an Opportunity, a premise for the initial adventure.  I'm suggesting we start with one of these:

1. Establishing a new community in the wilderness.
2. Avoiding the law to survive as smugglers.
3. Searching for a lost treasure.
4. Protecting a remote outpost on the frontier.
5. Leading the conquest of a poorly-understood country.
6. Following a falling star to where it lands.

Once the players have chosen an opportunity to start with, we'll answer a few questions about the party, then we'll jump right into the adventure.

 

Meanwhile, I'll be posting on the behind-the-scenes channel about how the world is actually being made, as I roll everything up on random tables.  Last time we tried this it was a lot of fun, and as the GM, I enjoyed being surprised by the nature of the world unfolding around us as we adventured.

The game is going to focus on the fiction of the world, leaving aside any number-crunching and die-rolling mechanics for now.  (I'm interested in those, but that's not the focus of this playthrough.)

Feel free to drop in and out, or just watch if you like.  We're leaving the size of the party somewhat vague, so players can come and go as needed.

Drawing of a Flintlock Pistol

A quick post today, just wanted to share some of the artwork I've been doing for Signs in the Wilderness.  Here's a drawing of a flintlock pistol with some of the process labeled:

I'm aiming for a style somewhere between old-school RPG art and Eric Sloane's pen-and-ink drawings.

Does this look interesting?  Evocative of the setting?  Good enough for publication?

Cattle Brands as Heraldry

Heraldic coats of arms are a fun way to distinguish powerful families, but they're best for a European setting.  If you're looking for interesting symbols for a non-European setting, there are plenty of other sources you could look at, from Japanese mon to Central Asian tamgha.

For an American setting, I decided to look at cattle brands.

The giants of the Northern Lands belong to houses: kinship societies centered around a family meeting-place.  Each house is named for its sign, carved on trees and painted on rocks throughout its territory. 

Base

Start with a Base sign.  Here are a few of the more common ones:

Bear
Sasa

Boat
Noyik

Branch
Tavti

Cloud
Movta

Fence
Lavta

Hut
Shahya

Shoe
Masvo

Sled
Laami

Turkey
Tuyik

(If you're interested, the names underneath are in the language of the giants of the Inner Sea.  Vowels are like in Spanish, h is pronounced even after a vowel, and doubled vowels are sustained twice as long.)

Modifier

Then add at least one Modifier.  A standing sign has a single leg with a foot on each side.  A walking sign has a pair of feet splayed out at the bottom.  If they're facing the same way, it's running: 

Standing Hand
Solyo Sang

Walking Turkey
Lo Vath Tuyik

Running Hand
Vindva Sang

Flying signs have a pair of wings at the top:

Flying Spear
Saata Toxu

Flying Shoe
Saata Masvo

A sign can have a bar across the top:

Bar Hand
Dol Sang

Bar Turkey
Dol Tuyik

Broken signs are divided in half by a pair of parallel lines:

Broken Hand
Ontki Sang

Broken Shoe
Ontki Masvo

Signs can be enclosed by a diamond or a circle:

Diamond Turkey
Kusuk Tuyik

Circle Hand
Osu Sang

Turn a sign on its side and it's lazy; upside-down makes it crazy:

Lazy Turkey
Ugu Tuyik

Crazy Hand
Saya Sang

Signs can also be double, or you can have one by another, or one over another.

Double Hand
Anggaak Sang

Hand by Turkey
Sang do Tuyik

Turkey over Shoe
Tuyik so Masvo

Modifiers can even be combined:

Bar Standing Fence
Dol Solyo Lavta

  Broken Sled over Cloud
Ontki Laami so Movta

  Lazy Bar Trout by Walking Hill
Ugu Dol Lulut do Lo Vath Guth

Modifiers are applied in order, starting with the one closest to the base and working your way leftwards, so Lazy Bar Turkey starts with the sign for Turkey, then adds a Bar to make Bar Turkey, then rotates it sideways to make Lazy Bar Turkey.

Lazy Bar Turkey
Ugu Dol Tuyik

 Bar Lazy Turkey
Dol Ugu Tuyik

There's no strict upper bound to the number of modifiers you can use at once, but don't get too carried away.  This house, for example, would probably be ridiculed for their overly-complex sign: 

Lazy Running Standing Diamond Walking Net over Flying Running Lazy Standing Lazy Coat
Ugu Vindva Solyo Kusuk Lo Vath Tahya so Saata Vindva Ugu Solyo Ugu Lapu

(If you're playing a giant, I suggest you try something simpler for the sign of your own house.)

In our campaign over on Reddit, the party recently encounted the houses of Dead Spear and Spider by Crow, and they've heard of the abandoned ruin of the house of Flying Hand.  From the names alone, any giant would recognize their signs.

What kind of heraldry do they have in your game world?