I had a chat with Paolo Greco today and he noted that the Abulafia grammar doesn’t have context. We talked about various ideas, for example tables that remembered their result and only produced a single result for every run. You could use it to generate the name of the local duke and then reuse it everywhere and wouldn’t get different dukes.
We talked about naming rivers, valleys, mountains, political boundaries, and how you could then reuse the name: for bridges, towns, fords, and so on.
I decided to tackle mountains, first. The idea I had was this: I wanted a table to produce a result and then all *nearby* hexes would share the name. But what would “nearby” mean in this context? Neighbours? No, I decided it was going to be all the hexes neighbouring hexes sharing a “type” (a word from the description).
Let’s take another look at the default map. See those four white hexes along the western edge, the four white hexes including the big mountains at 01.08? I wanted the name of the mountain to be available in all the white hexes.
Image 1 for 2018-03-12 Describing Hexes
I settled on the following convention: If a table is called “name for *type* something” then this table will apply for all the neighbouring hexes sharing this type.
Let’s look at the hexes I’m interested in:
0108 white mountains cliff1 0109 white mountain 0207 white mountain cliff1 0208 white mountain
The relevant tables:
;white mountain 1,The air up here is cold. You can see the [name for white big mountains] from here. 1,Snow fields make it impossible to cross without skis. 1,There is a hidden meadow up here, protected by the [name for white big mountains]. 1,The glaciers need a local guide and ropes to cross. 1,The glacier ends at a small lake [maybe an ice cave]. 1,A *white dragon* lives in a ruined mountain fortress on the highest peak around here. ;mountains 1,These mountains are called the [name for white big mountains]. [more mountains] ;name for white big mountains 1,[dreadful] [peaks]
The key is that the first time the table “name for white big mountains” is referred to, a name is generated and it will spread to all the white neighbouring hexes. That’s why you can “see” the named mountain from neighbouring hexes.
In the output, for example:
**0108**: These mountains are called the Dire Giants. They are impossible to climb.
**0109**: The air up here is cold. You can see the Dire Giants from here.
#RPG #Hex Describe
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This should also work for larger swamps, forests and the like.
– Alex Schroeder 2018-03-15 22:38 UTC
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I don’t know how you’re producing content for the hex regions but I made a table for that recently based on terrain and you might find it useful. http://melancholiesandmirth.blogspot.com/2018/03/descriptions-of-terrain-hex-groupings.html?m=1
http://melancholiesandmirth.blogspot.com/2018/03/descriptions-of-terrain-hex-groupings.html?m=1
– Lungfungus 2018-03-15 23:56 UTC
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Oh, I like it! May I reuse it in my tool? Credited to Lungfungus, URL being https://melancholiesandmirth.blogspot.com/ OK? The software itself uses GPLv3 but the icons use CC BY SA 3.0. The simplest would be one of these two, I guess. Or CC BY SA 4.0, more likely. What do you think?
https://melancholiesandmirth.blogspot.com/
– Alex Schroeder 2018-03-16 12:12 UTC
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Please do so! I make all of my hex maps by hand so the icons themselves would be however you think is best.
– Lungfungus 2018-03-16 16:23 UTC
