World Building Wednesday for February 19th, 2025.

It’s good to be back.

Hex-A-Day 2025 has kept going. Some days I don’t put a ton of details into a hex. I can always go back to flesh things out later if needed. I always get terrain type, an encounter, and at least one cool feature in every hex. Hex-A-Day Affiliate link here if anyone is curious. Third Kingdom games is good at worldbuilding stuff.

I use Atelier Clandestin’s Sandbox Generator. Affiliate link here. I like it for the simplicity of generating the three things I mentioned above. Eventually I will be doing more with biomes and factions. I want to see more towns and cities on the map first. The Sandbox Generator gets the job done as well as I could ask for at present. It’s been well worth every penny for the PDF plus Softcover.

Building my own backstory.

Like any character in any other game, I like to build some backstory into my world. Show me a Game Master who doesn’t build some lore, right? I’m not going to info dump because I’m still growing some of it. Also I’m angling more toward a systemless fantasy setting, but I want to keep Mallards, Wolfkin, Cat Folk, and Karkions. (Let’s face it. I’m sticking to Dragonbane. LOL!)

We’re doing a hex crawl which is fun in and of itself, but there are also dungeons. We need a reason for all these crazy underground structures to exist. Some are above ground. Eventually there might be some in the sky, too. I’ve pondered this sort of thing for a couple of decades now.

For whatever reason, (science, magic, giant spaghetti monster that created everything,) nature in this world rapidly replenishes itself. If a road goes unused for too long, it will be covered in grass and vines just as the surrounding area within days and weeks as opposed to months and years. Kaiju, forest fires, volcanoes, or nuclear reactor core explosions are little threat to the natural environment.

“They finally did it. They finally went and did it…”

There were multiple overlapping prior civilizations on this planet much like we have on real world Earth. One society in a region goes “kapoof!” and another sprouts up over the top of it. Some societies vanish completely while others linger and rebuild. But how did they kapoof? Why are they gone now?

My solution of course is Dragons and Demons. Flying, winged, scaly cataclysms or death from below. That’s also not discounting a more modernized civilization with iridium buzz bombs and steam powered depleted uranium mortars. Oh, and some idiot somewhere let loose with the zombie virus so that took down a chunk of the world, became unearthed and did it again. There are even rumors of “plant zombies.” They’re lean, green and do their own bizarre thing.

Most cultures develop written language and keep records as time goes on. Various religions and governments sprout up and eventually fade away. Some religions stick around longer than governments. However, the presence of Dragons and Demons often makes a lot of the notions of gods seem irrelevant because no one ever stands in the way of either for long. That’s not to say some cultures don’t know about the spirit realm or that powerful spirits aka “gods” don’t exist. Far from it, actually.

The group will encounter tidbits of history from past civilizations in books, scrolls, and tablets. There is going to be a constant and undeniable language barrier until some of the more familiar kin are encountered. Not trying to lore dump on the poor players, either. Lol. I will create the history to go with the dungeon, ruins, necropoli, or whatever when they encounter it. There’s going to be kind of an onion effect of factions and various civilizations, but I don’t want to overcomplicate things at the start, or I will be in tears by the time we’re done. (See what I did there? Onion?)

The horrors of the past will be visited upon the present. (Earthdawn, anyone?) Dragons, demons, liches, and other nightmare creatures lurk in caves, in deep underground ruins, or just wait to be awakened once more by unsuspecting travelers. I mentioned kaiju earlier. That wasn’t an accident. For all we know the Planet of the Apes scenario on this world could have ended with a mega sized version of King Goosidorah wiping out their whole city. (See this article for details.) The possibilities are staggering.

That’s not getting into all of the stuff that could have stepped through portals, crashed from outer space, or wandered in from R’lyeh. Nature itself might cough up an extinction level event. Portals will be kind of a deus ex machina situation throughout with this world. It’s how the players got there. It’s an easy way to explain things coming and going. Where from? Who made it? Not important.

Undoubtedly some realms have risen and fallen only to be completely forgotten. So far the dice haven’t been as kind as to keep settlements within a few kilometers of one another. I’m either going to have to make some editorial decisions or assume that contact with other settlements is rare. So far most of the towns have rolled peaceful, accepting, or even friendly to the group.

Obviously no one freaks out over the sight of Humans, Mallards, Wolfkin, or Cat Folk. But Elves and Dwarves? EEK! What in the world?!? It’s almost as if those kin disappeared or never existed. More on that at a later date.

Keep building. See you next time.