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Wolves Upon the Coast Hexfill Procedure

Abstract

Luke Gearing's hexfill procedure is a minimal regional stocking loop intended for speed. It relies on one pass of d6 content assignment, then expands only the hexes that need detail.

Base Hexfill Table

Per hex, roll 1d6:

  • 1-3: Nothing
  • 4: Settlement
  • 5: Lair
  • 6: Weird

This creates sparse terrain by default and concentrates prep on playable nodes.

Vodka Connectivity Rule (Key Innovation)

Each hex with content has a 2-in-6 chance to be connected to another content hex:

  • destination distance: d20 hexes
  • direction: random
  • placement: snap to nearest occupied/content hex

This is the procedure's strongest contribution: it creates non-local relationships without hand-authoring faction maps.

Settlement Expansion

Settlement hexes get two follow-up rolls:

  • Size/Population (village, town, or fort with distinct population formulas)
  • Notes (local relationships, boon/ally, hostility, or weird spillover)

Cities are manually placed and handled as a separate scale.

Lair and Weird Expansion

  • Lair: select/roll local monster type and place treasure accordingly.
  • Weird: d10 classification table covering geography, magical component, strange NPC roles, clue nodes, historical sites, treasure, or combined effects.

Fast Referee Loop

  1. Fill all hexes with 1d6 contents.
  2. Expand only non-empty hexes.
  3. Apply connectivity rule to content hexes.
  4. Turn resulting links into rumors, travel hooks, or faction pressure.

This structure is useful when you want a playable wilderness quickly but still need cross-hex causality.

See Also