This isn't a discussion of Kingmaker, though that AP got me thinking: what can I include in a single hex of terrain?
Ex: I made a hexmap for my homebrew; each hex = roughly 15 mile radius. There's a dominant terrain icon in each hex; light or heavy forest, hills, water, etc. But remembering back to my 1e books one hex could contain a major terrain but then smaller, supplemental terrains within, such as a minor river where it isn't noted on the map or a forest dominating a hex but with a small bog inside the woods.
Also, how many things can you encounter there? I'm not saying individual monsters, but adventure sites. Ex: in a medieval civilization reference document out there on the interwebs is says there were usually villages or small towns about every 5-10 miles along a major highway or waterway. That being said could I then have 3 settlements in a single hex?
So, in coming back to my homebrew, I have a small semi-civilized section I call the Shire of Bloodthorn Hollow. It starts with light forest in the center and is surrounded by 6 hexes: heavier forest, 2 hexes of coastal highland scrubs and moors, and 2 hexes of forested hills.
Right now I have 3 settlements: the large town of Tashtanshire, the large town of Arabellyn, and the small town of Staghorn reach. the 2 dedicated hexes of light and heavy forest are the actual Bloodthorn Hollow; a dark and dangerous wood along the floor of a vale surrounded on 3 sides by hills and uplands.
I want to know how many different interesting things I can get away with in those 2 hexes of the Hollow and the one highland moor with no settlement. Please advise.
The whole playable area of the video game Skyrim would fit in one of your hexes.
A hex that large, 30 miles across, could accommodate quite a lot. Somewhat less than 700 square miles, which with 640 acres per square mile gives something in the ballpark of 448,000 acres of land. The internet tells me 30 acres was about a family size farm for medieval England, though I have no way of knowing how accurate, if at all, this information is. If it's accurate that amount of land could support almost 15,000 medieval family farms. Even if you had 100+ double size farms corralled together into an estate or small fiefdom of 6,000 acres you could fit about 75 such small fiefs into that rich farmland if you wanted.
I can't tell you how many ruins could be in such a place, since that depends on your campaign world's history, but looking at a heavily fortified border could give you a rough cap to use. Using Hadrian's Wall as an example, the 70ish mile(80 roman miles) long wall was originally planned to have 1 small fort each Roman mile(about 80 in all) and observation posts in between. Later larger forts like Vercovicium were added(15+ along the whole wall), which if they were all like that place would have had native villages grow up alongside them. The wall became part of a larger defensive line with more forts north of the wall for scouting too. All in all, in 30 miles along Hadrian's wall in a perfectly planned and operational wall you could probably find 6 larger forts like Vercovicium, 30 small forts, about that many watchtowers, and a number of forts north of the main wall. I have no idea how many small villages you would find within 15 miles north or south of the wall, but there would probably be a decent sized number.
So in a ruin saturated area of your campaign world one of your 15 mile radius hexes could have as many as 6 or 7 moderately sized ruins(enough to handle a couple thousand people), maybe 30 small ones(less than 100 people like the small forts), and probably at least that many tiny ones(remains of villages, watchtowers, tiny reconnaissance forts, etc). That assumes a heavily built up border area of a campaign world and ruins that withstand the test of time. In a more sparse frontier, like a desolate area that's hard to settle, you could have much, much less build up in the same space.
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So then, all of this being said, there would be no problem with the following:
1) Sub-terrais: in one hex just outside the hollow I have the terrain showing hills. I intend to place a small mountain range with a handful of peaks spanning a few miles, but MOST of the hex then is the foothills of these few heights.
2) Multiple adventure sites: I've made Bloodthorn hollow a place to fear, a place where monsters tread. I can't do that if there's only 1 or 2 places for the party to adventure. However if you're saying a single, 15 mile radius hex could conservitavely hold 6 separate large "lairs" like the ruins of large forts, then I should have no issues.
3) Multiple settlements: Per the Domesday I could have settlements every 10 miles roughly. That, coupled with other sources I've read which basically say it takes about 3 villages to support a decent sized walled town or city means that each hex that shows a town in the Hollow could be expected to have anywhere from 3 to 5 small villages around it, w/in a days travel, producing the raw materials that make civilized life possible.
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So then, all of this being said, there would be no problem with the following:
1) Sub-terrais: in one hex just outside the hollow I have the terrain showing hills. I intend to place a small mountain range with a handful of peaks spanning a few miles, but MOST of the hex then is the foothills of these few heights.
2) Multiple adventure sites: I've made Bloodthorn hollow a place to fear, a place where monsters tread. I can't do that if there's only 1 or 2 places for the party to adventure. However if you're saying a single, 15 mile radius hex could conservitavely hold 6 separate large "lairs" like the ruins of large forts, then I should have no issues.
3) Multiple settlements: Per the Domesday I could have settlements every 10 miles roughly. That, coupled with other sources I've read which basically say it takes about 3 villages to support a decent sized walled town or city means that each hex that shows a town in the Hollow could be expected to have anywhere from 3 to 5 small villages around it, w/in a days travel, producing the raw materials that make civilized life possible.
Sounds good. I know Kingmaker tries to limit what you have in a hex. I understand why they want to limit what is in a hex but trying to tell my pcs that wasn't fun.
Ironically, just because I used the title "Kingmaker" in my OP they moved me here. This is actually for a homebrew world. Still the same point you make PJ is valid in either case; try telling my players that, after 4 days of traversing the lighter-forested hex of Bloodthorn Hollow all they found (worth experience for an adventurer that is) was a trapdoor spider's lair that had a small CR1 treasure hoard in it. It is now clear.
No, actually Here's what I'm planning next: players are currently in a large town. Outside said town the terrain of the hex is Highland Moors. I'm going to throw in a small secion of bogs, about 10 miles from the town; bogs infested with a hag, a bunch of her minions, and a young girl (human female adept 4) that's been turned into a wererat.
It will be a tale of vengeance and redemption. The party has a very strongly-played Saranite so I will hint at the potential that the wererat girl be saved instead of destroyed. If they DO destroy her; meh, won't hurt them. But if they SAVE her then they'll p/up an adept 4 with the ability to make Wonderous Items as a contact for potential Boons.
I can't believe they moved this to kingmaker. Lol.
Medieval Demographics Made Easy
Thanks for that link!
So here's the reality I've found with a single hex of my map: it is merely an overlay. For example: the party is about to return to their hometown which is near the center of a 30 mile rad hex of wooded hills. I've already described the hills as rugged and woods as scattered thickets rather than one big forest. Now consider the modern town I live in in real life. Its roughly a 10 mile radius suburb with one edge being some high hills, but most of it being flat. In the center of the burb there's a great, marshy area which I'm told at one time was heavily wooded.
So back to their hometown hex. On the far southern edge of the hex, roughly 10 miles outside of town the hills reach the height of a modest mountain range. Scattered throughout the wooded uplands are interspersed lowlands with small bogs and fens, areas of exposed strata and caves. I've also added a river; its small enough that it doesn't show on the overlay map but within the hex it begins in the southern mountains, makes its way past the town but dead ends in the nearby lower valley instead of making it to the sea.
Just for future reference: "forest" and "hills" really gives you a lot of mileage to work with as terrain types...