Using Hexographer to Build a World
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- Опубліковано 6 вер 2024
- We started building a world together on twitch! Starting with a totally random map. I think it's a fun way to build your own campaign world.
Here's the twitch stream where we picked a good map to start with: / 67873364
Here's the stream where we populated the curated map with content: / 67979566
Hexographer: www.hexographer...
The .hxm file we created, you can use this to alter the world to your taste:
mcdm.gg/YouTub...
Notes about the world we created:
mcdm.gg/YouTub...
Tristanexmachina on reddit made a version of the map in Inkarnate!
imgur.com/LPuhDA4
/ mattcolville
/ mattcolville
If you want to help support the channel, come by my Amazon page: www.amazon.com/...
Better than Patreon because you get a book! :D
I love how Matt is constantly foiled by his own popularity.
+Tom Magennis I don't really understand it, but I'm rolling with it. I think a big part of it is just the community. The people like the people.
It might have something to do with you making excellent content that people really enjoy. Or maybe people just have a thing for DMs called Matt.
One of the great cosmic mysteries, I suppose.
Big fan, by the way, planning to read the books as soon as I don't have ALL THE EXAMS.
What he said ^^^
Where is Ajax the Lesser? What did you do to him?
Dragons who live in glass houses throw no stones.
+Grant Ellis You are getting a thumbs up for that sir.
Unless they use the Glass Steel spell...
Culture playing D&D
It’s crazy to be watching these in ye olde times of 2023 7 years later
As someone who has recently walked backwards into homebrewing a world, I can really get behind the idea of worldbuilding being a combination of 'therefore' and 'but' - the Therefores build hooks and give colour, and the Buts create drama. The Therefores come pretty naturally to me so far, but I think I need more Buts in my world. A buttload of Buts.
It really was a great stream. The number of amazing ideas in the chat was fantastic.
Another video? I think I'm going to put a new god in my campaign.
Colville: God of punctuality and exceeding expectations.
The best analogy I can think of is that you were DMing the stream. It was awesome to watch even when I couldn't add my own ideas. I am really inspired by this whole process.
I love the idea of dragonborn smithing glass weapons with their breath, I'm totally stealing this. I had an aztec civilization planned, but wanted something by which to define them. Great channel, great content, great community.
I know it’s been years since you put this up but you inspired me through these videos to start my own campaign setting and start running D&D. It’s been so awesome, thank you so much.
Matthew is just a joy to learn from. I want him to be known by all. But I also want to keep his lessons all to myself! A true dilemma.
You my friend, is a Beacon of INSPIRATION for us simple mortals. Keeeep it up!
I was just struggling with the map of my campaign and this came to be very insightful, thank you so much!
I wish Matt would call us viewers his *Colvillagers* eheheh.
+Leon S. Kennedy I think villagers would work better. :D
*****
But that's not stupid and punny :(
And it's shorter and easier to say as well. ;)
Dang. And here I was hoping it would take longer to run into the first dick of this community, but this is the comment section of youtube so what did I expect.
Or Colvillians.
As someone who is drawing their campaign map from scratch, I've got to say it's a sh*tton of work (takes a lot of time, which in contrast is saved by using something like Hexographer) and I am constantly double guessing myself if it is even going to be worth it in the end, lol. Though I do think that drawing one gives you somewhat more freedom, but it is ultimately down to personal preference. Anyway, if any of you want a sneak peek, here it is, by no way finished: postimg.org/image/4o88pv5or/full/
+Re4XN
I think it looks good so far. I'm not a huge fan of the style but its consistent which helps it look much more together (plus its your map, not mine). As a player having a map, even a really simple one makes the world feel so much bigger and more real. If I had a DM come in with a big handmade world map with interesting features and maybe a few names for kingdoms/cities that would get me way into the world immediately.
I think the deal about using Hexographer is that it's random. What fascinates me about playing D&D is the feeling of being carried by unexpected and unpredictable events. If I can start feeling this right off the bat, on the world setting, I think it's great. In fact, I wouldn't have randomized only the map. I would also have used a random encounter generator to randomize the inhabitants and legendary creatures for every region. Then I would start monkeying with diplomatic relationships and lore.
I absolutely loved the stream and the world it's created thus far. I'm a very new DM (only 3 sessions in), but look forward to the prospect of playing in this world after my first adventure is under my belt!
Digging your increasingly quality videos. Keep it up! :D
this looks like a good world for a campaign and i can already see many interesting adventures starting here:
For example maybe the parents of the titan killed by the hero dwarf want reparation for the act of vandalism against their favourite mountain range and the pc are tasked with finding a way to reach a friendly agreement between the two parts before the dwarven race is brought to court, or maybe a local glaziers guild wants the city of zir to be completely destroyed because they want a monopoly on glass production in the area, maybe that bay in the south is an EVIL bay and the players have to kill it
Excellent job, Matt! I don't use hexes on my campaign setting map, but I follow your distance notion while drawing it. If 1 Hex is equal to 24 miles (1 day of journey), on my maps 1 cm is equal to 24 miles.
I feel like this could be a new sort of thing we could all do on Twitch. If you've made a map but want help generating what things are called, and where people live, maybe you can host them on Twitch, and have everyone chip in ideas to name worlds.
Nice to see a short and sweet summary of the 4+ hour long streams. Much appreciated.
What are your favorite DnD modules, if any?
Make sure you highlight the twitch broadcasts. Regular old VODs expire after some time.
+jigglefactor Good call! I think they delete after 60 days. He has them here, but a highlight would preserve the chat.
You solved one of my problems with world building in this video, Matt! I tend to, while fleshing out a place or idea, fix all the problems it has. "These people live next to an undead spawning ground, so they've blocked it off and have a horde of paladins who keep it contained" for example. (That's cooler than what I normally come up with.)
Then, when it comes time to run a game, there's not a lot for PCs to run into - the world jut isn't very dangerous. When I run adventures, they seem out of place in this perfect safe world. The idea of "Therefore... But..." is the puzzle piece I've been missing.
In the future, I'll try to think about what the perfect situation would be, then think about why that's not the case. What is causing the scales to tip? There's your adventure!
Also, the Twitch VODs died. :(
Reminds me of the way that Andrew Hussie originally ran his comics (Problem Sleuth and Homestuck) by taking, basically, the first suggested action he liked from the forums. Eventually they became so popular that it was less of making the best of what he got and more of just sifting through pages and pages.
if this world took off, meaning a fair number of people ended up using it I think it would be cool to see group/forum input on its evolution. The crew at wizards sort of do this. By this I mean over time it would not be stagnate, say every yearly quarter the forum could discuses/ vote on the state of affairs within the realm. For example in one quarter a civil war could break out in the northern Sanction, originally over something like the true blood line heir/rights to form a kingdom. In actuality its for control of trade in the Broken Spine mts. (only an example) That way in that quarter DM`s while running their game will always have that living world behind them. Just an idea cheers.
first off, kudos to the uber video overload this week. take a nap. naps are great. also, as if you don't have enough stuff on your plate you want to cover, I would love an episode covering designing a class. sometimes players like a class but don't love it, and so tweaks make it that much more to love and that person gets much more invested to the character and the campaign. with 5th, I feel there are two ways to go about class creation. 1) create a sub type to an existing class (i.e. eldritch knight fighter vs battlemaster fighter) and 2) create a new class completely. I would love to see your take or to hear about a time you did this for a player in your campaigns or a dm did this for you.
I highly recommend the random world generator on the website donjon for random world maps, however they're not customization friendly unless you're proficient with photoshop or another editing program. It's an overall excellent resource website for random names of things from stuff like deities to random npcs to eldritch books of power. It's one of my go to GM resources, and the first thing to come up when googling "donjon".
Loved the stream. My first time using twitch and it was really fun. My husband and I have bought the 5th edition players hand book and DM's guide. Hopefully we'll get some games going.
I love that someone named the mountain range broken spine, cuz they slipped in a brokeback Mountain joke.
For anyone willing to hand over the actual map for the players to use on the table, know that you can hide the hex grid to make it look more realistic. Although, despite ruining appearance really hard, the grid is useful for quick distance measurement. So, keep a gridded version around.
Huh Matt that desert idea is pretty neet the whole making stuff from glass....do you mind if i stole it for my own game? Heh i think it be pretty interesting to take my own little spin on it and use it in a desert kingdom i am creating.
Good DMs copy, great DMs steal. :)
I know this is super late, but may be useful for people watching this later.
Glass cannot naturally be made from desert sand. You might want to consider this, saying it's a special (magic?) sand or something, or just assume the players doesn't know it.
Ya that glass idea is dope also I hope that map generator also let's you make one from scratch rather than just hitting randomizer
Hey Matt, I use Hexographer as well and love it. I was wondering - what do you use to manage your campaigns? I use Microsoft One Note and find it invaluable. Great series of videos. take care.
I use OneNote as well. It's the best software I've found the past 4 years of looking. My DM Screen is a laptop with OneNote running.
it's funny, I started my own homebrew game 2 years ago with a randomly generated map in hex, quite similar to what you did - mapped out the surroundings of the big city the party was near as well as the most basic traits on the continent.
the party has gone from 3-12 without ever leaving their starting city, Kaloshtar, behind them. fighting in a war now, actually.
funny how things tend to go :)
+kkplx Sounds like they are getting complacant. ;) You need to drive them out with something like Matt did in criticalroll.
currently updating several 1st ed modules to 5e for a fantasy grounds game I'm planning to start soon. looking forward to the fantasy grounds video as I would love to pick up some hints about making the most of the platform.
I much prefer the Battle for Wesnoth map editor for creating hex-based maps. it's totally free, comes with a nice strategy game, and looks SO MUCH COOLER because there's actual video game quality art, rather than what amounts to terrain codes, which can be difficult to read. It also has a map generator (although it's designed to create strategy game maps, not worlds) and a million terrains and decorations.
Hi Matt, another great episode and loving your new style of content too. Are we going to see the rest of the building a fighter series? The episodes being the length and complexity they are means fewer views but I learnt a lot of cool history from them I wouldn't have otherwise known.
In the words of CGP grey, Hexagons are the bestagons...
Just saying - I started this vid to check out the Hexographer, but Matt's look in this video REALLY reminds me of a werewolf (hit me stronger than other vids of his I've watched)
this stuff here.. this is what gets me going. Im totally autistic about maps. im going to have to spend the rest of the night cranking out another map. great video.
Adamantine Dragon Glass.... That city is virtually indestructible.
The old Dwarf Kingdom was eventually destroyed by the ancient Dragon long ago because they slayed her mate, the Titan.
I want to start a new D&D campaign after watching your videos. Been running Sci Fi for awhile, but maybe its time to turn in hyper drives for sails, mono blades for daggers and of course space leviathans for Dragons.
Definitely stealing the dragon obsidian, works perfectly for my desert setting
Dark Sun! Thank you Colville
I watched the youtube videos, and you complained a lot about hexographer while you were using it. Would you recommend Campaign Cartographer instead?
+Daracaex I would not! Whatever my complaints about Hexographer (it's slow, why do I have to click two or three times?) they pale in comparison to the insanity that is CC3.
Hey Matt, I'll get the flattery out of the way by saying you are an inspiration to us all. You were talking a lot about high fantasy in this video and I was curious as to how you define it, would you consider Middle Earth to be a high fantasy setting? Is there a "middle" fantasy?
Matt, your videos have really pushed me to DM. Do you think it's too much to take on 2 different campaigns for two different groups at once? (One online with roll20.net playing a premade adventure, the other with a custom setting in person)
Love your content!
+Trevor Johnston I believe Matt has two groups he DMs for. I personally would not suggest taking on a third, but a second is absolutely manageable as long as you can provide the players a sturdy platform to roleplay on!
Hey Mat, really enjoying your videos, actually applied your theories on alignment in my Pathfinder campaign. I was wondering if you had a link to the fortress building homebrew you mentioned?
You talk really fast, But you have a lot of cool information. The information seems overwhelming, But the exciting tempo makes me want to dive in right now! I am totally subscribing to this guy, But I'm not sure I can keep up with him.
I'm having a problem trying to revert 120 mi per hex to a map where it's 24 mi per hex. I don't know how to divide that into the hexes
FYI, it is called the Lost Mine of PfhleegeenFlûgen
Not to ruin the fun, but you CANNOT make glass out of desert sand. The molecular structure does not permit it.
But hey, your average player probably doesn't know this, and there is always magic : )
Is it ok if I just take the map and the campaign setting and run with it? Im a very new DM and I knew I wanted a setting that wasn't forgotten realms or anything but I was way too daunted by the task of making a whole world, and everything in the map you have here and described was perfect! I'm not going to claim to my players that I created the map of course, in fact I think I'll make their starting town "Colville". Thanks so much for these awesome videos man. Keep them coming!
Just do it! I'm sure he won't mind. :) if it's a home game, rip off whatever you want. I'm a new dm and I am so using the city of glass
I love the idea of leagues. 20-25mi per hex.
Help me Matthew Colville, you're my only hope. (trust me, I've looked! ... well ok I sorta googled around for a while)
a) Thank you for the videos, I've loved them so far, sorry I hadn't found your channel sooner, but ... go reddit.
b) Sometimes you look into the camera REALLY intense and I paused it and had you staring at my child while she did her homework. She found it slightly unnerving but effective.
c) I'm running a D&D game and have been for some time but I REALLY struggle with managing combat efficiently. I need help, tips, to get into the action without... "ok... so there's.... 8 kobolds, 8? really... that seems like a lot of writing... ok 8... and 5 cultist .... for crying out loud... ok you guys roll initiave" "I GOT A 7!" "don't tell me yet I'm still ...ok they have 12.. and they have ..26? how did I..." well you get the idea, and then tracking HP and AC and abilities, and wait the players are like 79.5% human who is carrying the light source? sometimes one combat is all we manage for the night and everyone goes home kinda "well...we killed stuff and most of us lived" but no actual RPing took place D:
I'll see if we can't record a combat at work so you see how I do it!
That would be fantastic :) thanks for taking the time to read all your comments and respond. I would have tweeted the question but I get long winded at times, character limits...
Matthew Colville Temporary solution for tonight's game. No combat encounters!
Before I watch further, does Matt ever explain why he has added rivers which don't empty into bodies of water? :)
I led a similar project two years ago, a community built setting named RPG Supersetting. I also wanted a low fantasy and people came in with high fantasy ideas. If I learned anything, and there lies the epiphany, is that people like their fantasy to be fantastical.
The project was also open-source and for non-profit and came with a nice simple system to generate world. More information here: drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B2rYJGG8NN9HYXFGQ01wVzNndUE&usp=sharing&pageId=100320392140793672031
instead of just 'glass' it could be Obsidian.
I want to make a subterranean world that includes a lot of lava lakes & rivers & caverns. I don’t see lava tiles in Hexographer. Can anyone recommend a software app?
The Ban Tuur Steppe...hmmm...the banter steppe? :P
Write a book in this campaign setting
Is there any way to buy your books digitally outside of amazon?
Reason I ask is the paperback version with the cheapest international shipping is just way too expensive (and you also say you barely get anything from the physical ones sold.). What I read books on nowadays is my phone, but the amazon kindle app requires iOS 8 or later but that isn't available for the iphone 4.
I'm genuinely interested in reading them if they are anything like how your D&D world is built.
I thought about buying it in a format I couldn't use and just finding a pirated version of it somewhere that i could actually use but I don't know if it's popular enough to have been pirated...
wish it had chrome os support
Same though
Somewhere in one of these videos he says about how much distance each hex is... Does anyone know where that is? Thanks!
24 miles across.
@@mcolville Wow, the man himself!
Thanks for the reply, and for giving me the confidence to get into DMing in general. :)
@@mcolville I just came back to this video as I'm in the middle of building my world (Finally!) and found my own question...
I was sure at the time that hex information was in another video rather than this one, I must have missed it somehow.
I must apologise for wasting your time with that question, which is ironic given that this comment does that too, but I do feel like an apology is worthwhile.
Thanks again! My players seem to be enjoying my campaign so far and that never would have happened without your inspiration!
Why D&D doesn't have metric system too? like. for sake.
Hey Matt, another nice video.
I wonder if you have ever checked out a map making program called Inkarnate? It's a great program, currently in open beta with many of the features you have expressed appreciation for. Here's a link:
inkarnate.com/
*EDIT* I see now, after reading the doobly doo that you are familiar with Inkarnate. It pays to be thorough, I guess.
Also, I sent you a message through this channel a few weeks ago but haven't gotten a response. Wondering if you got it.
Between your videos and the likes of Critical Role, Dawnforgedcast and Nerdarchy, my passion for the game has been reawakened. Thanks for that. Game on!
I like using hexographer for practical mapping purposes, but absolutely loathe it to implement it in actual play. I like to come up with wilderness regions, dungeons and other adventure locations that exist within hexes, but they don't tell you enough about the world.
"maybe two more streams" *7 videos later*
I hand draw everything
What happened to the Twitch links?
Do you mind if we use that map? Because I can easily use this in my next campaign with a little editing.
I reccoment watching this video at 0.75 speed and 2.0 speed
That map looks a lot like the middle east
#DOOBLYDOO
"This really will be a short video"
12 minutes long.
xD
i downloaded hexographer.... how do i open it?
dude, stop recording and get some sleep!
Hai notato che assomigli un pò a Wolverine ?