Happy Map Monday, ya’ll–and happy November! Today is a new month so I figured, why not do something different? As a dungeonmaster or fantasy author, we sometimes run into real life roadblocks to creativity, time constraints, and all kinds of other adventures (and misadventures) that take us away from our main quest of having ALL the fun. When that happens, it’s a great idea to have some backup weapons in our arsenal. I know in the past I’ve talked about watabou’s most excellent Medieval Fantasy City Generator over in itch.io. Today, I’d like to pull in the view a little–narrow the focus, make it about the little things. After all, every fantasy TTRPG or novel has to have at least one quaint little village!
That brings me to another off watabou’s awesome creations–the Village Generator, which I found out about by signing up for their newsletter. With this particular map generator (both are web-based, by the way, so super easy to use), you can create a village instantly. A simple right click will allow you to modify the parameters; for example, trees or no trees, elevation, and so on. I rolled six maps in a sitting earlier today, and four of them would work, right off the bat, for my current campaign without modifications. Almost all of them would be suitable for fleshing out my Ahran Archives fantasy world, especially when I decide to write not just novellas, but gaming modules!
Map Monday would not be complete without a prompt. I generated example village (seriously, I LOVE this tool) and wrote up a little thinky-thoughty prompt to ponder. Enjoy!
Your party/main character comes upon a tiny but idyllic village in their travels, nestled on the bank of a gentle river and against forests and farmland. What is the name of this place? What are the people like? And, most important of all, why isn’t it on any maps your characters have seen?
ELIZA SINCLAIR 