Using an old WFRP Book for Sandbox Creation

 

I found an old book called Renegade Crowns that helps aspiring GMs generate a sandbox in the Old World. I thought it was interesting, so I followed the steps, rolled the dice and came up with what you see.

First, the book has you generate the terrain type, and you place each square onto a big grid. Here were my results: Green is forest, red is scrubland/badlands, purple is swamp, brown is barren hills, pink is scrubland plains (and almost impossible to see on this map) and yellow is barren mountains. I also added three rivers (blue lines) and the geometric lines are underground dwarven/skaven tunnels.

This is a very different process than how I would normally generate terrain (using online tools). Plus I've never worked with non-hex grids for a map. It was kind of refreshing, but the end result is a pretty confusing array of blinding colors.

I also generated a bunch of specific locations, which you can see in the black hexagons on the map, and the monogram, which will be explained later.

Next, I wanted to get my bearings, so I used an online tool that generates more believable terrain, and overlaid the two maps.

Based on this overlay, I rearranged some terrain features to match the underlying map. This gave a more scattered terrain appearance, and hopefully improved it. It also greatly reduced the amount of red terrain present, and expanded the pink stuff. I probably could have skipped the initial terrain generation step.

Next, I generated a bunch of settlements, which I expanded via some convenient online tools that gave me Warhammer-y names. I sketched out an initial paragraph outline, which you can read below. Also note that each settlement is comes from a certain time period, which you'll see in the place descriptions.

 

HISTORICAL OVERVIEW

This region was first settled by Arabyans. The terrain and climate was similar enough to their homeland that it was comfortable. They eradicated many of the beast men tribes and green skins before settling. Unfortunately, both beast men and green skins have remained present in the area.

The Khemri came next.

 

Then some dwarves.

Then some more Arabyans.

Then some more dwarves, who had a pretty good run of things.

Then some rich merchants who thought they could do better than.

Then some Imperial humans thought they’d have a go at it.

At some point, a disgruntled college mage lived here too.*

 

*If you can't tell, I lazily hammered these eras out over the course of about 3 minutes. The goal was to get through the generation process quickly.

Ancient Locations:

Maimoona Tariq

Outpost, Arabyan, Fallen to Military Attack, 3500 years old

Half a dozen mostly-ruined courtyard homes surrounding a central tower - A degenerate tribe has made their home in this ruin for generations, and their ramshackle buildings have been crudely retro-fitted onto the original structure. These once-humans’ bodies are strange and twisted from chaos magic.

Amenkno Ouza

Fortress, Khemri, fallen to policy, 2500 years old

A huge ancient fortress - A tribe of deeply inbred degenerates, all descended from one man, has lived here for decades. He has fathered many children with his own daughters, and granddaughters. All sons are left to the elements.

Gul Borim

Settlement, Dwarf, fallen to plague, 1900 years old

A robust village hidden underground, accessed via a large door behind a waterfall - A pair of enchanted golems guard the village. They kill any non-dwarves who attempt to enter. There is a rumor their programming can be overridden by finding the control rod deep in the ruins. This is false: No rod like this exists.

Al-Garundah

Tomb, Arabyan, fallen to Magic, 1600 years old

Mostly-intact remains of a once-glorious palace - This degenerate tribe worships chaos magic, but there are only a handful of people who have the Sight. The casters’ bodies are badly distorted from chaos magic, and they are on the brink of succumbing to chaos completely.

Nog Dural

Outpost, Dwarf, fallen to military attack, 1300 years old

A way-station or rest stop for travelers - An impressive dwarfish weapon is here; perhaps a magical item with limited charges, or a large siege weapon. Either way, whoever gets it will become a fearsome opponent.

Kharnulir

Outpost, Dwarf, abandoned due to famine, 270 years old

a watchtower carved out of a high cliff to oversee a path - None, abandoned. Everything that could be easily moved already was.

Maussberg

Settlement, Oddity, 120 years old

a merchant compound that was once very nice - It was unknowingly built atop a deep and mostly-vertical series of caves. A construction project broke through and unleashed a terrible swarm of creatures that fed upon the inhabitants. Every night, these creatures return to the surface to feast.

Falkheim

Fortress, recent Human, plague, 100 years old

an imperial settlement, still totally intact. Weeks-old corpses are huddled in houses, still riddled with plague - the cause of the plague is in the leader’s hut, recently recovered from a nearby ruin. Many survivors fled the city days or weeks prior, risking the infection of everyone in the region.

The Blazing Tower

Oddity, fallen to enigma, perhaps 100 years old

a magical tower that spring up out of nowhere, not abandoned but heavily trapped - Weapon: This tower is magically sealed and contains a very powerful artifact… if you can figure out how to get inside. Anyone who touches the outside of the tower is engulfed in flame.

 

Final Thoughts
Overall, the generators created some good stuff. The book contains more details aspiring GMs can drill down on, including generating leaders of various areas, giving them personalities and relationships (read: grudges) with other local leaders.

It took over an hour to generate all this stuff, and another hour to put everything together in Illustrator, plus I spent some time making the place names really fit. I don't know if I'd recommend this process, but for a WFRP product, it fits my sensibilities better than the heavily-railroaded adventures.