The same rules as the starting-town still apply at the broader region level:
- Consistent access to water is essential for enduring settlements.
- Adjacent regions will have similar climates (though you can start transitioning to different ones at the region level).
- Conserve detail to just the areas near where the players are and where they will be going. Keep surrounding regions vague, but give them names and refer to them occasionally.
Defining a Region
A region is an area defined by natural boundaries with a similar climate and terrain. Often a region will have one controlling power but it is possible for a region to be contested between powers or neutral and anarchic. A region could be as small as a single county or as large as a nation, but power isn't what defines a region; nature is. Example regions are The Shire and Mordor from Lord of the Rings, and County Cork in Ireland.At the edges of a region the terrain and climate will begin to transition into that of the adjacent region. These borders can be distinct, like a river or the point where trees give way to plains, or fuzzy like the transition from foothills to low mountains. You may be tempted to create regions in a square or hexagonal shape, but remember that regions can be long and narrow or have long fingers reaching into their neighbours. For example a long mountain chain or fertile valley may be form a thin region between two others or protrude its neighbour, respectively.
Building a Region Map
At any scale beyond the starting town, it's beneficial to have a map. I'm going to describe one map-making technique here but feel free to experiment and find what works for you.- Start with a hexagonal grid. The centers of each hexagon are one hour's walk (approximately 3 miles for most characters) apart. If your players have access to faster means of travel (horses) and/or the region is sparsely populated, you may want to make the distance between hexes greater.
- Place your starting town in the center of the grid.
- Figure out how large your region will be. This is purely a matter of taste and how much time you want to pass as your characters travel. In real life dry, flat regions such as plains and deserts tend to be much larger than mountainous or rainy regions because there are fewer natural barriers. A messenger on horseback riding from the seat of power to a county's farthest outpost might take three days, but how far he travels in that time depends on the terrain and climate. Often a lord's ability to rule an area is directly impacted by how long it takes for messages to reach the entire area.
- Decide what the natural barriers and neighbouring regions will be, and mark them on the edges of the hexes that will be the border. Remember your starting town doesn't have to be in the center of the region.
- Starting from the edges, mark each hex with what biome it is (forest, plains, swamp, etc) and any distinctive features or settlements. Remember settlements are usually near water. This is the step where you decide where those named places from before are actually located. They may be located just outside of this region's borders as well.
- Create a network of roads. Typically roads radiate outwards from cities towards other cities (even in other regions), with forks going to smaller towns, castles, etc. Roads go around obstacles such as bogs and hills, potentially veering significantly.
- Remove the hex grid and add as much detail as you like.
Example Region
Here is a map of the Red Hills region in the nation called Din from my Teredahar setting.
Upcoming Articles
At The Table: Agile Fighting - Let your agile characters perform tactical acrobatics and parkour-style movement in combat.World Building: Adding Racial Variety - Surface-dwelling German-accented Dwarves? Hell yes.
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