Setting Seeds

Overview

The following procedure is designed to help create the seed of a setting: the unique topography, natural features, people, and paths that an adventuring party may encounter as they travel throughout a region. We’ll start by developing the people that live there, their ambitions and resources, and the factions that affect them. Then we’ll generate the terrain of your region, followed by its various points of interest, landmarks, roads, trails, and so on. As with any other rule, if you don’t like a table result, roll again or tweak as desired!

Note: the source publishes an illustrative example map image alongside this chapter; as an image asset it is not reproduced here.

The Realm

A Realm is a general term for a related collection of regions, potentially encompassing hundreds of places for the player characters to visit and interact with.

Materials Required

A sheet of paper and a notebook. Letter/A4 is OK, but the larger the better. Going forward, we will refer to the sheet of paper as the map.
Pencils and erasers. Colored pencils if you want to make it pretty or want to indicate terrain with color.
At least one d6 and one d20, but 6d6 and 2d20 would be ideal.

Theme

People

The most important aspect of a region is its people: their character, ambitions, and the resources that tie them to this land. Roll on culture and resources, then note the results in your notebook.

Factions

A region is typically dominated by one or more factions, each with their own unique Advantages, Agenda, and Obstacles. Each faction should also have one or more representatives, or Agents, tasked with helping complete their agenda. Smaller regions with fewer POIs should have 1-2 factions, while larger regions could have as many as 5-6 factions.

Agents are often in charge of completing one or more of the goals of the Agenda of a faction. Particularly large factions may have additional agents, each in charge of a distinct goal. Agents may have personal motivations that differ from the faction’s main agenda, a fact that canny PCs can exploit for their own gain.

Advantages

Factions possess advantages that assist them in accomplishing their agenda. Advantages reflect a faction’s influence, materials, wealth, and other unique features. Factions leverage their advantages as much as possible when trying to achieve their goals, and at the same time continually work to acquire more advantages.

Agendas

Factions will work to complete their agendas independently, enlisting the help of PCs only when that would strengthen their agenda. Agendas are defined by a series of 3-5 goals that build toward a clear objective. Goals are progressive, building on the previous successes (or failures) of earlier goals.

Goals should focus on acquiring a distinct advantage in order to proceed to the next goal. At least one goal should deal with the faction’s primary obstacle. This may be the first goal, or the last. All agendas have at least one obstacle that stands in the way of their completion. Additional obstacles can arise through faction Actions (see below) or through developments in the fiction.

Completing a faction’s agendas should be a significant event, potentially changing the political or natural landscape of a region.

The region map should continually reflect the impact of factions as they work on completing their agendas and acquiring more advantages.

Creating Factions

Roll one or more times on faction-types, faction-traits, faction-advantages, and faction-agendas.

Faction Advantages Table

Roll 1d20 to determine the number of advantages the faction has, then roll 1d20 again for each of the corresponding advantages. For example, if a result of “2” was received from the “# of Advantages” column, you would roll on the “Type” column twice, noting each result. Reroll repeated results.

Example Faction

Type

Academics: Royal Cartographer’s Guild. Respected and feared, even by the royal family.

Advantages

Apparatus: A Map of the Dead. Legend tells that the map reveals a Gate to the land of the dead.
Renown: None would dare defy the Guild publicly. Their voice carries great weight in the Cities.

Agents

Horatia Confi, first of her order. Recovered the Map of the Dead for the Guild. WIL 15.

Agenda

Hire a skilled party to escort Horatia to a location written on the map.
Travel through the lands of the dead in search of the Order’s original founder.
Bring the founder back to the Cities. Overthrow the ruler of the Realm.

Obstacle

The Guild has been warned that a well-placed operative moves within their ranks.

Faction Rules

By default, factions operate independent of the player character’s actions. If the PCs do nothing, the faction should still act to achieve their aims.
The Warden should rely on the fiction to determine whether a faction is positioned to advance their agenda.
Some goals may be time-sensitive or depend on explicit circumstances. Other times it might be more appropriate to introduce a new goal after a major event, alliance, or friction between one or more factions, etc.
Whenever a faction is positioned to advance a goal in their agenda, roll on faction-actions.
If two factions are opposed, the faction most at risk makes a WIL save, using the score of its highest-ranking agent. On a fail, the faction does not roll on the Faction Actions table at this time.

The actions of the PCs can always overrule the necessity for a faction action, or in some cases shift the outcome of the roll in a favorable or unfavorable direction.

Topography

A region’s terrain and natural features are an essential part of any map, affecting the local history, resources, settlements, culture, and more.

Landmarks

Landmarks are unique, visible POIs that can also be used as geographic reference points: towers, mountains, tall buildings, and so on. They help orient travelers around the map, and are especially visible from areas with higher elevation or a clear viewpoint. Landmarks are represented on the map by a triangle.

Draw Terrain

Roll 1d6, then roll an amount of dice equal to that number on the map. Collect any dice that roll off the page and set them aside.
Note the face-up result for each die, then use terrain-die-drop to mark the terrain type on the map. For example, a die showing a 4 would indicate Tough terrain.
Draw long, curvy lines across the page, carving up the map around each die.
Roll on the appropriate table for each result (terrain-easy, terrain-tough, or terrain-perilous), writing the terrain and landmark results on the map.
- Replace the die with a triangle, writing the landmark result on the map.
- Roll any dice that fell off the map page, repeating the last step until none remain.
- If there are any empty spaces in need of terrain, roll a die anywhere you like and use the face-up result as before.

Rivers, Seas, and Lakes

Every region should have some kind of water source. Otherwise, where would the locals get their drinking water or receive news from the rest of the realm?

To create waterways, draw a wiggly line from the highest elevation point (e.g. Mountains) to the lowest (e.g. Grassways).
If the river runs through terrain that is higher in elevation, it might terminate in a lake. If your map has a sea, it might terminate there. Otherwise, the river can continue on off the map page.

Weather

The weather can have a great impact on the people, culture, and terrain of a region. It impacts what kinds of clothes the adventurers need to wear, what sorts of tools they’ll have to bring, and how tough the journey might be. To determine the average weather of a region, roll on seasonal-weather once for each season. Optionally, you may also roll on unusual-weather around particular landmarks or terrain.

Points of Interest

Points of Interest on a map (or POIs) are generally divided into the following categories:

Heart: The primary settlement in a region. It isn’t necessarily the largest or most important place, but it should always be significant to the region’s history and people.
Settlements: Permanent, largely self-sufficient population centers, typically governed by a political body or faction.
Waypoints: A safe place to refill supplies, get a good night’s sleep, or get directions.
Curiosities: A wilderness locale of note, somewhere remarkable or strange. It may indeed be hazardous, but only if the PCs interact with it.
Lairs: An enemy encampment, hive, or source of heightened monster activity.
Dungeons: An explicitly dangerous locale, dungeon, or adventure site.

Draw Points of Interest

Draw the letter H close to a water source on the map.
Roll 3-8 d6 dice on the map, collecting any dice that roll off the page and setting them aside.
Note the face-up result for each die, then use poi-die-drop to mark the type of POI on the map. For example, a die showing a 4 would indicate a Lair, denoted by the letter “L” on the page.
Roll any dice that fell off the map page, repeating the last step until none remain.
Starting with the Heart, number each POI on the map.
Roll on the relevant tables for each POI, including the Heart (usually a Waypoint or Settlement). Note the results for each in your notebook.

Some POIs may allow the PCs to see more of the world than what appears on their map.

Roll on poi-settlements, poi-waypoints, poi-curiosities, poi-lairs, or poi-dungeons as appropriate to the POI type rolled. See the Dungeon Seeds chapter for how to flesh out each Dungeon POI for your setting.

Paths

Paths act as geographic connectors on the map, ranging from well-traveled roads and trails to rough wilderness routes. Paths should provide compelling choices between POIs, where factors such as safety, speed, and travel difficulty must be weighed.

Path Types

Standard paths are obvious or well-trod routes between two POIs. Represented by a thick line.
Hidden paths do not appear on any known maps. Their discovery always requires some kind of cost. Represented by a dashed line.
Conditional paths may be blocked or require specialized tools (boats, climbing gear, etc.) to cross. Others may even be impossible to navigate without a map or guide. Represented by a crossed line.

Draw Paths

Starting with the Heart, create 1-4 paths between each location.
- Create loops, branching paths, dead-ends, and shortcuts between POIs.
- Some paths may be parts of a chain and tied to a particular terrain (mountain passes, rivers, etc.).
- Some paths are Conditional, represented by a crossed line.
- Some paths are Hidden, represented by a dashed line.
Designate each path using the number of a POI and its connecting point, e.g. 1 ↔ 3. Indicate this in your notebook under the originating POI or in a separate section.
Decide whether a path represents a road, a trail, or a wilderness route, and write the results in your notebook.
Roll on path-features for each path, writing the results in your notebook.
Determine the path distances between POIs, and note the duration on the map:
- A Watch is 8 hours long. Denote days between POIs wherever possible (typically two Watches and one rest per day of travel).
- A short distance between POIs takes one Watch to traverse, a medium distance takes two Watches, and a long distance takes three Watches.
- For Trails, add 1 more Watch, and for Wilderness routes, add 2 additional Watches.

All of the tables referenced above (Culture, Resources, Faction Types/Traits/Advantages/Agendas/Actions, Terrain Die Drop, Terrain: Easy/Tough/Perilous, Seasonal/Unusual Weather, POI Die Drop, POI: Settlements/Waypoints/Curiosities/Lairs/Dungeons, Path Features) are published as structured data — see setting-seeds-tables.json in the Cairn tables index.

Put It All Together

Ask yourself the following questions:

What would draw people to this region? What keeps them here?
How do the people here think of outsiders? How do outsiders think of them?
What power do the Factions have over the people who live here?
Who or what threatens their agendas?
How would a faction interact with any newcomers (e.g. an adventuring party)?
How does the region’s terrain and weather affect the people that live here?

You should now have a sufficient idea about the people and terrain of this region, and your first region is now complete. To expand your realm, repeat the process as many times as you wish.

For example, if my results described a people that were religious and sought conversion, I’d assume they were a proud folk, prone to religious extremes and proselytizing. And if their primary resource was land, yet spices were rare, I’d assume they grew their own food, but due to a religious prohibition their cuisine was often bland.

Presume that for a faction the result was a group of Nomads, with conviction their primary advantage. I could then assume that their elites were a class of religious chiefs. If the faction’s agenda was to cultivate a rare resource, but they were hindered by cultural taboos, I might decide that they had hired the party to take on the task instead. Perhaps the object of their quest was a unique plant, only grown in a distant place, and that the mission must remain a secret!

Finally, the party would meet with one of the faction agents: a spy posing as a peddler. Only she could tell them where the plant grew, and how to cultivate it. I keep in mind that this person should likely appear in an important place such as the region’s Heart.