We’re big on theme here at Squeezymon games. Give us a good thematic game like Arkham Horror LCG, Warhammer Fantasy, or anything from Gilded Skull Games, and we’ll be happy campers. Unfortunately we’re not the best at making thematic stuff, but we’ll catalogue our attempts at it anyway.
WARNING: likely to lean heavily on common fantasy tropes.
Now that you’ve been fairly warned, let’s jump into it. We’re starting with two things today: a brief history of the world & first drafts at world maps. Please keep in mind these are rough sketches and drafts that we’re sharing out on our world building process.
A Brief History Of The World
First Draft – Subject to massive revisions
Before life began as the world knows it, two powerful being existed – one of good the other of evil. They fought endlessly, each trying to defeat the other.
Eventually good triumphed over evil, as it often does. Good split the evil being into hundreds of pieces and sent them across the galaxy ensuring that it could never be whole again.
However, one of those pieces of evil landed on the inhabited planet of Heloria, scarring the surface of the planet. From that scar, evil started to spread and corrupt life on Heloria. Evil started to grow in power once again.
Good saw this, and desperate to prevent evil from growing powerful again, cut off their left hand and sent it down to the planet to provide a force of good for the people of Heloria.
And so, on Heloria, good battles evil.
World Map
First Draft – Subject to massive revisions
We decided to make a map simulating tectonic plates shifting, like how Earth was formed. To do this, we started with a land mass blob, then rolled up 2D4+1 fault lines. Then for each fault line, we rolled a D8 twice to determine where it started, and where it ended, with each section of the land mass getting assigned a number 1-8.
Then, we rolled 1D12 for each fault line to determine the direction it moved in, based on the direction of a clock (so a 3 would move right). Based on these results we broke apart the land mass and created mountain ranges where there were collisions.
We continued this out to make a final map sketch, taking some creative liberty in how to put it together. Lastly we assumed a West to East jet stream on the northern hemisphere, and an East to West jet stream on the southern hemisphere, and used that to help dictate the biomes. (more water on the windward side of mountains, less on the leeward side, etc.).
However, we need to redo the biomes because the jet streams need to flow the same direction, since the direction is tied to the rotation of the planet. Who knew game design would also teach us meteorology?
Next steps are to redo the biomes, make a prettier version, populate the regions with the races of Heloria – humans, orcs & goblins, elves, dwarves, etc. All the classic fantasy races.
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