Tags
B/X, BECMI, Classic Fantasy, fantasy, Fantasy Campaign, hexcrawl, old school, old school renaissance, old school revival, OSR, Worldbuilding
Here are are some d12+d8 tables for randomly generating the terrain inside of large, “Campaign-scale” hexes. My preferred scale for a “Campaign-scale” hex map is 36 miles to the hex, with each hex broken down into 156, 3-mile (1 league) hexes. Each such 3-mile hex can then be broken down further into 156, 1/4 mile (1,320 foot) hexes.
If your 36-mile hex has an overall terrain of Coniferous Forest, and your d12+d8 rolls add to a 5, there’s a 3-mile patch of what is basically Wetland in the forest. If you want to go down finer in scale, you can then roll on the Lowland Wetland column to find out what is in each 1/4 mile hex within the 3-mile hex. For example, if you roll a 3, then there is a 1/4 mile area of elevated Moorland within the 3-mile area of Wetland (that is itself within a 36-mile area of Coniferous Forest).
The measurement of a hex is from the center of one hex to the center of an adjoining hex, or from side to parallel side (which is the same distance). If the PCs move from the center of a 3-mile hex to the center of the next hex, they have traveled 3 miles.
These tables create a plausible fantasy terrain of an admittedly “vanilla” type, for worlds such as Panzoasia. They’re not designed to produce weird deserts of orange glass over which float semi-intelligent bio-mechanical spheres. They will, however, make worlds geographically similar to our own, that could actually support viable populations of animals and people.
A note on streams and rivers. It’s extremely hard to accurately model drainage basins with these kinds of random tables. Assume that PCs have a 50% chance to encounter a significant body of flowing water (brook, creek, stream, or river) whenever they move across a non-desert hex. Remember, if the PCs follow a stream downriver, they will never move through areas of higher elevation. Conversely, if they follow a stream upriver the terrain will always increase in elevation.
Here’s an example of a “Campaign-scale” map at 36 miles to the hex.
The Engine of Oracles 
Immediately useful! What software are you using to make the map? It looks great.
Thank you! I make my maps in Inkscape. https://inkscape.org/.
What is a hex crawl?
A “Hex Crawl” is a style of playing RPGs which is focused on free exploration of an outdoor area, often without any overall plot at all (or with only a minimal plot structure). It is called a “Hex” Crawl because it is generally played out on a map broken up into hexagon-shaped cells, which regulate the rate of movement for Player characters, define the environment(s) encountered, and and otherwise function much like the individual rooms in an underground “dungeon”. (The “Crawl” part comes from the phrase “Dungeon Crawl”, referring to the old style of RPG play focused around subterranean complexes). In a pure Hex Crawl the Player Characters are allowed to go in any direction they want, and interact with the environment in whatever way they want, with minimal direction from the Game Master.
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