Worldbuilding Exercise - Get 5 Random Features, Design a Region

[BokaliMali]

Yep, another one of these.
My favorite part of planning a homebrew campaign is building a region chock-full of interesting plot hooks to get my players going. So… I dunno, can’t think of what else to say in the preamble. It all seems pretty self-explanatory.

Here's the rules:
1. Roll a d100 five times
2. Take the corresponding features/traits/whatevers and design a fantastic region full of adventure and plot hooks! Note that while your setting has to contain the five features you rolled, it’s not limited to those five. Go crazy if you want to!
3. If you roll two things that conflict you can either re-roll or decide your region is large enough that there are places where either of those things are true.
4. If you roll the same number twice, re-roll.
5. Bonus points for the region being part of the world you built here and incorporating the organization you created here!

When I design a region I usually use this format:

Name
Geography:
History:
Inhabitants:
Important people:
Important organizations:
Gazeteer: (descriptions of major settlements and places of interest)

But feel free to make yours however you like.

1. Difficult to enter
2. Difficult to leave
3. Major trade route
4. Undiscovered/Newly discovered
5. Difficult to map accurately (for some reason)
6. Rich in natural resources
7. Rich in unnatural resources
8. Completely lacking in an essential resource (wood, water, etc.)
9. Popular destination for settlers/tourists/etc.
10. Sane people hesitate to go there

11. Unexpected combination of terrains
12. Impressive natural formation
13. Impressive man-made formation
14. Impressive magic-made formation
15. Ancient battleground
16. Recent battleground
17. Current battleground
18. Empty ruins
19. Inhabited ruins
20. Homogenous terrain

21. Primitive tribes
22. Lost/hidden civilization
23. Major race’s ancient homeland
24. Strange local traditions/superstitions
25. Ancient enmity between two intelligent races
26. Mutual hostility between all intelligent races
27. Multiple races allied against a mutual foe
28 Melting pot of many races peacefully coexisting
29. Highly developed technology (‘cutting-edge’ for the setting)
30. Taboo to one or more intelligent races

31. Dinosaurs!
32. Friendly spirits
33. Unfriendly spirits
34. Solitary, powerful creature
35. Incursion from a good-aligned plane
36. Incursion from an evil-aligned plane
37. Incursion from a non-aligned plane
38. Regular swarms/stampedes of _____
39. Intelligent creatures that are usually unintelligent
40. Extra dinosaurs!

41. Wide open spaces
42. Cluttered/cramped spaces
43. Very high altitude
44. Very low altitude/Underground/Underwater
45. Regularly/constantly changing altitude (for some reason)
46. Multiple lakes
47. Riddled with tunnels and caverns
48. Awful lot of rivers
49. Island
50. Never enough dinosaurs!

51. Powerful evil imprisoned
52. Powerful good imprisoned
53. Important holy site
54. Powerful regional guardian
55. Ancient artifact
56. Body of a dead/sleeping <insert incredibly powerful entity>
57. Something that can reveal the truth behind a famous mystery
58. The site of a famous mystery
59. Someone/something that claims to be/people claim to be a God
60. An actual God incognito

61. Earth-related magical anomaly
62. Air-related magical anomaly
63. Water-related magical anomaly
64. Fire-related magical anomaly
65. Sound-related magical anomaly
66. Electricity-related magical anomaly
67. Negative energy-related magical anomaly
68. Positive energy-related magical anomaly
69. Time-related magical anomaly
70. Memory-related magical anomaly

71. Incredibly large tree/tower/pit/etc.
72. Someone/something from another world
73. Hidden city
74. Permanent illusions
75. Anomaly that seems magical but has a natural explanation
76. Something completely ordinary that has a sinister/strange backstory/explanation
77. Something that can be found once but never again by the same person
78. A surly, orange tabby names Fasa (Or roll again I guess)
79. Chunk of land displaced by magic
80. A vast repository of information

81. Headquarters of a powerful organization
82. Multiple, conflicting organizations
83. Strictly controlled travel
84. Magically expedited travel
85. Home to a vast conspiracy
86. The site of a famous legend
87. Subjugated local population
88. Hotly contested by outside organizations/nations/etc. (vying for something)
89. Adventuring is popular
90 Adventuring is practically unheard of

90. A new twist on a well-established trope/cliche
91. Something so horrible you have to warn people and put it in spoilers (but still follows community guidelines)
92. Something that will make people laugh when they read it
93. Obvious author-avatar
94. Based on a real-world location
95. Actual real world location displaced/overrun with magic (or something)
96. Re-roll one previous roll then roll again
97. Throw some dinosaurs in there!
98. Roll twice more
100. Pick whatever you want!

[Kobold Catgirl]

Hm...this just gave me an idea for another thread. In the meantime:

5d100 ⇒ (48, 84, 57, 89, 53) = 331
Awful lot of rivers, magically expedited travel, adventuring is possible, important holy site.

Hm...

[BokaliMali]

31. Dinosaurs!
79. Chunk of land displaced by magic
27. Multiple races allied against a mutual foe
23. Major race’s ancient homeland
51. Powerful evil imprisoned

Almost bed time so I'll see what I can do tomorrow.

[Damir]

85. Home to a vast conspiracy
(okay, we'll see how this plays into the setting...)
55. Ancient artifact
(well, I'm pretty sure how this can connect to the first one...)
47. Riddled with tunnels and caverns
(...this is starting to become a stereotype of itself...)
73. Hidden City
(...seriously, random number generator?)
61. Earth-related magical anomaly
(probably related to 47, possibly related to 55 or 73... or even 85 itself)

Haven is a quiet ring of villages in a small valley, who alternate between small scale feuds and ever shifting family alliances against their neighbors and the abominations which creep through the dark tunnels in the mountains (which the common men are, of course, forbidden to enter due to the terrible dangers of the abominations). The only oddity is the occasional unexplained eclipses which hit the region every so often, plunging the world into blind darkness. In respect of these powerful events, a few blind elders guide the city, although nobody is sure where they come from. Some adventurous youths say they saw the elders come out of the dark tunnels themselves, but this is clearly nonsense.

Lightward, on the other hand, is a thriving metropolis. Hundreds of years ago, the great founders of the city banished an evil demon lord with the creation of the sword Third Sun, which was incredibly bright and also incredibly dangerous to demons.

Eventually, though, Lightward's citizen councils became more interested in coin and couches and grapes, and less interested in always being vigilant against demons. The only thing that roused the people of Lightward were the constant attacks by demons (who of course wanted to destroy the sword). No matter how the people hid the sword, they found their attackers would always be guided to it - necessitating expensive and suspenseful fights. Eventually, they discovered this was due to dark spells locating any time any person looked upon the sword (Lightward's people tried decoys, but discovered they had to recognize it as the sword as well).

Unwilling to let the sword be destroyed, but reluctant to give up their rich and proud history, the councils finally came up with a solution. They buried the sword in a great cavern underground, and raised an entire people group to watch over the sword in ignorance, unaware that their "sun" was just a chunk of steel hung on a moving pulley system. Blind men (from natural causes, or due to men who wanted an easy pension, as the village life was carefully looked over to always be generally pleasant and successful) would make sure the villages never discovered the true meaning of the sword, the city above them, or any other secret that might unravel the quiet complacence of Haven.

[Ventnor]

Feature 1: 1d100 ⇒ 6 = Rich in natural resources
Feature 2: 1d100 ⇒ 28 = Melting pot of many races peacefully coexisting
Feature 3: 1d100 ⇒ 75 = Anomaly that seems magical but has a natural explanation
Feature 4: 1d100 ⇒ 57 = Something that can reveal the truth behind a famous mystery
Feature 5: 1d100 ⇒ 87 = Subjugated local population

The town of Greensdale appears at first to be the perfect place to live. It is built into the side of a large hill with a large forest growing on it. The town was formed as a joint venture between the dwarven Ironhelm Clan and elves of the Evergreen Circle. Soon, all kinds of races came to live in the prosperous town, and were welcomed in the spirit of cooperation and brother- and sisterhood.

One local mystery that is located near the Ironhelm mines is a constant wailing. The dwarves say that before the town was founded, they fought a great battle with an underground evil and locked it within the earth, and elven wizards of the Evergreen circle back them up in this interpretation. The wizards also discourage anyone from investigating the "Imprisoned Wail," as it's called.

The reason they do so, of course, is because of the actual cause of the wail. Living on the hill before were a tribe of orcs, which was defeated by the overwhelming might of dwarvish steel and elven magic before the town was founded. Those orcs who were not killed were set to work in the mines that the dwarves dug, slaves in all but name.

The ruling council of the city, of course, does not want this secret revealed. Sure, their claims that they have found a use for inherently evil and violent creatures might go over well with some other dwarven clans, but many other clans and almost certainly most of the other elven groups would look down on orc enslavement.

The problem is, of course, that the reason that Greensdalian Steel is so cheap to make is because slave labor significantly cuts down on the cost. Aside from the price, the metal isn't really that much better than any other metal. And the economic opportunities afforded by such cheap steel have allowed Greensdale to prosper as an example of inter-species cooperation. Dwarves and elves, humans and halflings, gnomes and tieflings are thriving together as never before. So what if a few orcs have to suffer to the betterment of everyone else...

[I'm Hiding In Your Closet]

1d100 ⇒ 20 Homogeneous terrain
1d100 ⇒ 69 Time-related magical anomaly
1d100 ⇒ 22 Lost/Hidden civilization
1d100 ⇒ 42 Cluttered/cramped spaces
1d100 ⇒ 57 Something that can reveal the truth behind a famous mystery

Sometimes, people simply vanish without a trace. Hundreds of thousands of individuals from all over the world simply disappear every year. Some have been abducted by barbaric and desperate regimes. Others have shed their identities in exhange for new ones in order to escape people and lives they cannot bear. Many are victims of tragic, meaningless accidents, and their bodies rot where none who know them may find them. Then there are those who discover The Carpenter's Walk.

The Carpenter's Walk is a transitive demiplane that appears as a massive palace with no exterior - just endless hallways, doors, and rooms. It exists beyond Time and Space, and it is said the right door can lead anywhere and anywhen - finding one in particular, though, is maddeningly difficult, and those who find their way in may not be able to find their way out in a million lifetimes of searching. A million lifetimes of searching they do have here, though, and there are many who, upon coming here, do not even want to leave - the place is exquisitely designed in its own surreal way, and anything one could possibly want is potentially accessible through the right door - and from these accumulated castoffs from the great river of History, a civilization in its own right, one like no other, has emerged.

[Aneirin Rhodri]

1d100 ⇒ 28
1d100 ⇒ 61
1d100 ⇒ 61
1d100 ⇒ 11
1d100 ⇒ 39
reroll for 61: 1d100 ⇒ 62

So we got
Unexpected combination of terrains
Melting pot of many races peacefully coexisting
Intelligent creatures that are usually unintelligent
Earth-related magical anomaly
Air-related magical anomaly

[Thornborn]

Five d100s:
1d100 ⇒ 62
1d100 ⇒ 52
1d100 ⇒ 96
1d100 ⇒ 26
1d100 ⇒ 22

Hmm. Look at all the 2's and 6's...

Air-related magical anomaly
Powerful Good Imprisoned
(Reroll one of above, then roll again:
1d100 ⇒ 92 Another 2
Something that will make people laugh when they read it ...no pressure
1d100 ⇒ 80
A vast repository of information)
Mutual hostility between all intelligent races
Lost/hidden civilization

The Author sleeps. The Great Pen is still, the Hallowed Brush empty of ink, since the Eon Wind scattered and jumbled The Works of the Author. Such True reflections of the Author-Mind, and of reality, their scattering, was a shattering, of the Author's consciousness. Their Chaos, now the Author's dream, or nightmare.

But order has come. The Dwarrow, the Edhel, Men... even some machines. They've found their way, through the Chaos, to the Library. And they all work, to bring Order, once again. Cataloguing, collating, combining. Alphabetizing...

Each in their own alphabet.

26 letters in THIS alphabet. :)

[I'm Hiding In Your Closet]

1d100 ⇒ 50 Never enough dinosaurs!
1d100 ⇒ 1 difficult to enter
1d100 ⇒ 70 memory-related magical anomaly
1d100 ⇒ 13 impressive man-made formation
1d100 ⇒ 52 powerful Good imprisoned

Cyclopean in size and antediluvian in age, The Pyramid of the Second Sun is an oddity among pyramids - simply put, it is upside-down, perfectly balanced on its point, while what ought to be its base forms a crowning canopy instead, casting a shadow miles in radius - and that is only its visible shadow, for far greater in scope is the curious psionic beacon it emits, forever tantalizing those who live on the wider continent with what are locally known as "sun-dreams:" Supposed memories of the Second Sun era, the world's legendary "golden age" before the rise of the plague that is Man, when life thrived at its brightest and fullest, ruled over by that era's enlightened god before His mysterious disappearance. All who live on the continent experience these dreams/memories from time to time, but none more acutely than the dinosaurs, some of whom are occasionally driven to make pilgrimages to the Pyramid, and somehow make their way inside, and do not to come back out.

Naturally, one would expect the occasional idiot to find an inverted pyramid balanced on its tip too tempting a lure not to try to push it over; and indeed, many have tried - yet even the mightiest have failed. Whatever lies at the tip of the Pyramid, it is impossibly massive, impossibly powerful...but any who wish to know what that would be are first faced with the daunting task of entering the pyramid, and facing all the dinosaurs, and gods alone know what else, inside....

[Jarred Henninger]

im not very good at this but theres only one way to get better i suppose.

1d100 ⇒ 69 Time-related magical anomaly
1d100 ⇒ 56 Body of a dead/sleeping <incredibly powerful entity>
1d100 ⇒ 25 Ancient enmity between two intelligent races
1d100 ⇒ 47 Riddled with tunnels and caverns
1d100 ⇒ 18 Empty ruins

well im off to go think about stuff!

[Hymenopterix]

1d100 ⇒ 4 Undiscovered / Newly discovered
1d100 ⇒ 75 Anomaly that seems magical but has a natural explanation
1d100 ⇒ 87 Subjugated local population
1d100 ⇒ 25 Ancient enmity between two intelligent races
1d100 ⇒ 48 Awful lot of rivers

[Trekkie90909]

Feature 1:: 1d100 ⇒ 91:

Spoiler:

Something so horrible you have to warn people and put it in spoilers: My first thought was a Dino Ranma/Natsu crossover special training area

Feature 2:: 1d100 ⇒ 64: Fire-related magical anomaly!
Feature 3:: 1d100 ⇒ 66: Electricity-related magical anomaly!
Feature 4:: 1d100 ⇒ 50: Never enough dinosaurs!
Feature 5:: 1d100 ⇒ 78: A surly orange tabby named Fasa.

The Blight

Spoiler:

Dinosaur riding cat druids rule the land. It’s a shattered world where long stretches of deserted fire ravaged destruction suddenly abuts thousand year old stands of trees whose luscious foliage is forever concealed in thunderheads loosed from the plain of air itself.

The gods were dead, and she had killed them. Tabitha scratched Fasa’s coat absently while looking over the destruction. Elemental fires chewed through her once pristine oasis as the air boiled and burbled forth its contents in a never-ending cacophony of screams. Sighing, she stood up from the corpse of a lesser god and set out to review the damage. Fasa mewled discontentedly at the sudden motion but quieted as she handed him another scrap of meat. Such a feisty one that cat, Tabitha shook her head wondering why she kept the cantankerous tabby around. As if in response to the thought the cat dug its claws in and hissed around her head “they will pay for this betrayal.” Tabitha looked back to the sky where rents in the cosmos still belched forth scorching rays towards the oasis and shuddered. It was going to be one of those days.