Back in December 2011, what started out as a short exercise quickly mushroomed into yet another unfinished project. Six years on, it’s time to wrap up the end of the beginning of the end…
The Isle of Minocra project began innocently enough, with an island map that I thought I’d turn into a hex crawl. But the scope expanded quickly into a rabbit hole about encounter tables, a map tutorial, some pedantry about writing hex crawls, and a whole excursion into randomizing fixed encounters. And by December 2012–a full year after starting what was supposed to be a month-long project–where’s Minocra?
Resting comfortably six years in the future, my friend. And the future is now.
Getting Back on Track
I’m starting a new thing on this site: quarterly “how-to” projects that will focus on some aspect of world-building, setting development, or adventure prep. Each week (or two), I’ll post some progress, hope for your feedback, and forge ahead. At the end of the quarter, I’ll have some PDF or software tool to share, and everyone’s campaign will be the better for it. To keep myself on track, the scope will be narrow, but the end result will be completely usable. Our debut project will be that hex crawl of Minocra, which will take the form of a nice gazetteer that’ll be released June 30, 2018.1In the interest of full disclosure, access to the weekly project posts and artefacts will be completely free, but there is a strong possibility that final deliverable will be released for a nominal fee in our online shop or perhaps via a Patreon.
What We Already Know about Minocra
For the Isle of Minocra (IoM) gazetteer, we already have a map with fixed encounters, so a big part of the work is already done. Based on the examples created in the More Major Encounters series, here’s a rundown of the fixed encounters, by hex number:
- 0409: City of Sercus (ruin) – Port ravaged by metal insects; Padishah’s son is warlord
- 0513: Tower of Auscus (ruin) – Metal tower left after Sercus’ fall; bigger on the inside
- 0621: Fallen Knights of Trengus (ruin) – Chantry destroyed by a demon
- 0812: Bala Keep (fortress) – Knight w/dervishes; set upon by Usabir natives and needs muscle
- 1005: Brine Tower (fortress) – Insane noble trying to summon some fish god (actually Sharmat at #2001)
- 1117: Tholdir’s Manse (religious order) – Fighting order allied with Usabir natives; leader has bounty on head
- 1121: Kapuros (settlement) – Pirate city-island build above Ruins Under the Waves (pop. 900)
- 1216: Alaha (settlement) – Civilised dominion allied with Saba natives against Usabir clans (pop. 1,500)
- 1506: Tayblat (monster lair) – Goblin cave complex
- 1518: Kubu Keep (fortress) – Mage with goblin garrison; terrorise Usabir natives in search of artefact
- 1822: Tower of Grallus (ruin) – Rival mage of Kubu (#1518); home to order hunting for Tholdir (#1117)
- 1915: Caves of the Paal (monster lair) – Dimensional pocket occupied by planar worms
- 2001: Sharmat (monster lair) – Aquatic arthropod parasites living on the back of a giant crab
- 2002: The Crunch (natural phenomenon) – Stretch of uncharacteristically cold sea; dotted with dangerous ice floes
- 2407: Lepidorm Garden (monster lair) – Enclave of moth-men hive-minders
- 2410: Temple of Graxis (religious order) – Temple dedicated to awakening some marsh demigod of knowledge
- 2420: Nuril’s Teeth (natural phenomenon) – Random whirlpool; teleports anything it sucks in
When I created these examples, I filled in the random rolls with a lot of descriptive details on the fly, and these imply aspects of the Minocra setting:
- Races: Saba and Usabir natives, “normal” humans
- Classes: cleric, warlord, mage, rogue, knight, dervish, pirate
- Monsters: Sharmat and friends (#2001), Tayblat goblins (#1506), Paal (#1915), Lepidorm (#2407), some chantry-trashing demon (#0621)
- NPCs: Padishah’s son (#0409), crazy brine noble (#1005), Tholdir (#1117), Kubu (#1518), Grallus (#1822)
- Social: Persian flavour (cf. Padishah, #0409), Minocra as a remote outpost (Alaha is a beach head, #1216)
- Religion: Knights of Trengus (#0621), fish god/Sharmat (#2001), Tholdir’s fighting order (#1117), marsh demigod (#2410)
- History: The Ruins Under the Waves (#1121), fall of Sercus (#0409, 0531), Knights of Trengus (#0621)
Next Steps
There’s a lot happening on Minocra, so figuring out how to stitch it together is the next logical step. In my OCD mind, that means coming up with an outline for the gazetteer–essentially a Table of Contents template I can pour these details into. However, this can’t be a massive writing exercise, mostly because I’ve given myself only 12 weeks to finish, but also because this isn’t a narrative exercise. Indeed, this is a golden opportunity for me to take my own advice about less being more:
“When you’re creating a setting, describe it in game terms, not narrative text. Instead of lengthy paragraphs about setting history and barbarian migrations and the ecology of the skeleptron, use quick capsule descriptions, encounter tables, and game stats. Don’t tell your readers about a person, place, or thing—show them, and do it in a way that’s immediately useful to a GM. In short, provide a skeleton that GMs can flesh out on their own instead of telling GMs what’s important to you, the author.”
Me, several years ago
Tune in next week for a draft outline. In the meantime, how do you like your gazetteers organised and how much detail do you like?