Review: Mörk Borg Miscellany (Bloat, Devil's Tomb, the Hexed Gauntlet of Kagel-Secht, and Nurse the Rot)

What follows is a collection of reviews of four short adventures for Mörk Borg. Spoilers abound beyond this point.

Bloat

Bloat is a "A gluttonous dungeon for Mörk Borg". It is written by Greg Saunders, with an original map design by Dyson Logos and editing and art by Johan Nohr. It is a one-page dungeon and looks like this:

In print this takes up a two-page spread. It is quite easy to use at the table, and I was able to run it for my players in just one roughly two-hour session (albeit with a somewhat rushed anticlimax due to time constraints).

The premise is that a vagabond, Silas, stumbled upon a dungeon which was once the lair of a cult of bacchanalian priests dedicated to a goddess of fat and plenty. There he found a cursed set of cutlery which allows the wielder to eat anything and makes everything taste delicious, but also compels the wielder to eat. The dungeon is filled with fleshy ceramic automatons that kidnap villagers to feed to Silas.

The scenario suggests a few hooks:

• The PCs are recruited by the missing villagers' families or lord to find and rescue them
• The PCs seek shelter in the dungeon while hiding from something else
• The PCs are looking for Silas

Of these, the first appeals to me most. Have a lord post a reward for the problem to be dealt with and that should be sufficient motivation. The second option doesn't actually encourage exploration of the dungeon, and the third doesn't quite work unless you come up with a reason why Silas must be found (he is just a vagabond, after all). One possibility I toyed with was to instead make Silas an infamous highwayman, wayfarer, or the like, and to put a bounty on his head. However, this doesn't necessarily point in the direction of the dungeon, which is where the adventure is.

Since I ran this as a one-shot, I used option one. Villagers have gone missing, and a local lord has posted a reward to find them and resolve the problem. I added in that the lord's men had recently routed a band of brigands and that their leader, a killer named Silas, had escaped. Also, just outside the village there was an old temple once used by the Bacchanalists in certain dark rituals. Perhaps one or both are somehow responsible for the recent troubles? 

That seemed like enough set up for me - not that it mattered, because I had the players start at the dungeon anyway. If I were to instead run a sandbox and wanted to include this adventure therein, I think this framing would work well enough to get things moving.

The dungeon consists of six keyed rooms with a few notes about features in the areas between (discarded bones, a falling block trap, and a fountain of sweet water). The keyed rooms include a ratbadger's den, a larder where the automatons prepare feasts for Silas, a sewage pit where the automatons dump Silas's waste (and where it comes to life), a chapel where villagers are forced by the automatons to pray to a statue of the goddess of fat and plenty, an assembly area where automatons are created and stored, and the court of Silas, the Fattened King, whose corpulent form occupies the entire room, where he devours whatever the automatons bring him.

This is a neat little dungeon, if not a bit crowded. Every room has some sort of creature in it. Most are not explicitly hostile, so it need not be a combat-packed slog. Many of the dungeon's occupants are not given a suggested course of action, so the GM must use common sense or reaction rolls to determine how they respond to the PCs snooping around. Mörk Borg's core rules do include reaction rolls, so I view this as a design choice rather than an oversight.

When I ran it, most of the creatures were indifferent to the PCs. The ratbadger was asleep, so the PCs snuck past it (actually, one of the PCs had a scroll which allowed them to cast a sleep spell, which they used on the ratbadger to ensure it did not wake up when they passed it). I played the automatons as diligently focused on their assigned tasks so that they did not notice the PCs peeking around corners and into rooms. The animated waste in the sewage pit did menace them, but the players fed it scraps and then lured one of the automatons to the pit and threw it to the waste to be consumed. I played Silas as hostile only because I figured the cursed cutlery would compel him to eat the PCs.

There are a few interesting enemies here. The automatons have medium armor, do a medium amount of damage, and have quite a few hit points, but they are neutralized entirely when knocked down. The players were delighted once they realized that a good shove was an instant win (I made it an opposed Strength test, but the party's Fanged Deserter with +5 Strength had no issue with that). I added that the automatons were filled with congealed fat or grease and so were exceptionally flammable, which the players also took great advantage of. The animated waste is not particularly dangerous, but cannot be killed, only dissipated with water. 

Silas has a ton of hit points but no armor, but when damaged, he farts, which can cause the PCs to wretch and gag for several rounds. He can also grab the PCs and shove them into his mouth for extra damage. They covered him with grease and set him on fire, then had to run out with the villagers as fast as they could before he exploded in a blast of flaming farts. The newest character with just 1 hit point had to use all of their omens to survive that one damage roll.

It's a gross dungeon with plenty of room for crude, juvenile humor, which is some of my favorite gaming material. Definitely give this one a try! 

Bloat is available in print by way of Mörk Borg Cult: Heretic. It is also free on the Mörk Borg website (direct link). If you're into Mörk Borg, I highly recommend Heretic. It includes Sepulchre of the Swamp Witch, which I reviewed previously, as well as two of the other dungeons I review later in this post. It and Mörk Borg Cult: Feretory provide lots of gameable content which have together sustained multiple Mörk Borg games of mine for several months now.

Devil's Tomb

Devil's Tomb is a dungeon by Johan Nohr, made using the Mörk Borg digital dungeon generator, DNGNGEN, and it shows. I don't care for this dungeon generator at all, and feel that the GM is better served by simply making a dungeon in the B/X fashion or something similar (admittedly, I haven't yet made a Mörk Borg dungeon of my own and probably never will because the system doesn't offer much support for doing so).

That being said, this dungeon is alright. When I say that the use of the dungeon generator shows, I mean that there are a good deal of disparate elements jammed together in a way that only sometimes makes sense. There's a giant plant that has filled the place with psychoactive spores, a room with three goblins bickering over a sword, a lair of fish people, and a pit to Hell, most of which don't interact with each other in any meaningful way.

Anyway, here's what the dungeon looks like:

I ran this in my more sandbox-y Mörk Borg campaign, so I was able to let the dungeon breathe a little and didn't feel the need to jam it into a single session, which was nice because the players ended up in a very messy situation in the depths. It took us about two and a half three-hour sessions to get through it.

The dungeon overview says that the Eyes of the Icon of St Largoth have been stolen and brought to Devil's Tomb. They are magical eyes that grant the power of true sight, and the PCs are here to retrieve them. That's a decent enough hook. To make it a bit more tantalizing, I had the Church of the Twin-Headed Basilisk post a reward for the Eyes' return. My group had quite a few heretical priests among them, so they decided instead to retrieve the Eyes so that they could be destroyed or else used to lure representatives from the Church into a trap, which I thought was a fun idea and exactly the kind of thing that sandbox-style play is good for.

The main attraction here is the Plant of Life, a giant plant which has filled the dungeon with its spores and cherub-faced flowering vines. There are a few areas filled with spores, which require a Toughness test when inhaled to resist a number of effects. The effects are "weird" in a way that is not actually very gameable. They make the PCs see visions of death, or become dizzy, or hear voices. The effects are at worst inconvenient and at best something to handwave. (I instead gave them a charm/rapport spores effect, which I felt was easier to use. If the players weren't careful, it could escalate to total domination by the Plant.)

The Plant of Life is inside a hidden room partway down the Pit to Hell. The entrance can be seen through the Eyes of St Largoth which are, in turn, hidden in the Drowned's treasure hoard. I'm not sure how the PCs are meant to reach the entrance to the Plant's lair, which is on the opposite side of the Pit from the goblins' cave. Perhaps the gap is jumpable? Perhaps it is not so far down that it can't be climbed down via rope from the bridge above? Some rough approximations of distance would help!

I changed the Pit to Hell to a regular bottomless pit (which could still lead to Hell - the PCs didn't find out because none of them jumped in, even though I kept suggesting that there was only one way to know for sure how deep it went). I had the Plant's vines growing up and down the pit so that the PCs could climb up and down them as another means of vertically exploring the dungeon (all three levels connect to the Pit somewhere).

The Plant of Life is worshipped by the Drowned, amphibious humanoids who dwell in the dungeon's flooded lower levels (don't worry - the flooded area empties out into the Pit to Hell, so it's not flooded in any meaningful or interesting way, although the Drowned do freeze the water around them when they die, which causes some damage to those nearby). Belpheduk, a traitor to the Drowned, is locked in a cave at the top of the dungeon as punishment for killing another Drowned (it is not clear why she did this, but she wants to destroy the Plant of Life, and can provide information about its location).

There are 10 Drowned at the bottom of the dungeon, with 4 more arriving "soon" (when?), which is a lot of potential enemies for Mörk Borg, in my experience. Again, the dungeon does not describe their behavior, so I imagine that reaction rolls are meant to be used. My Drowned ended up being indifferent, so I split them up between the altar and lair chambers - those in the altar chamber were in silent prayer over their dead comrade, and those in the lair were sleeping in their "fleshy cocoons". This allowed the players to run around the dungeon scoping out the situation before deciding what to do. They could have easily snuck into the treasure room, stolen the Eyes, and snuck out again without fighting anyone.

Unfortunately for them, they still took an agonizingly long time making their choices, and ended up caught in the Drowned lair when the hunting party returned. They decided to ambush the hunting party (who were in the way of their escape), but ended up alerting all the rest of the Drowned in the process. They got caught between all three groups, with the hunting party in front, the Drowned from the altar at their flank, and those from the lair at their rear. A very long combat ensued, in which the players used all their omens, many of the Drowned fled, the rest died, and just one character was slain in the final round of combat due to consecutive critical failures.

The summary makes it sound thrilling, but it was quite a slog. Mörk Borg's combat simply isn't interesting enough to sustain a prolonged skirmish, so 10 to 14 enemies in a single area seems to me like bad design. That being said, my players definitely should not have started a fight here, so perhaps they are more to blame. Again, there is nothing to indicate that the Drowned are hostile to the PCs.

The PCs already had the Eyes, so they hurried out of there. They deliberated for a while about finding the Plant and destroying it, but decided to count themselves lucky instead. The Plant has a lot of hit points (but is too big to miss with an attack), and only has one interesting mechanic which is a tendril attack that must be escaped or else the target is restrained inside the Plant's mouth while being digested. The Plant can attack everyone nearby at once, so it has the potential to be very deadly. It's nice that the scenario does not require that the players defeat it.

Overall, this dungeon is fine, but it requires the GM to put in some work to tie the disparate elements together. The GM should also exercise some caution to prevent the adventure from grinding to a halt due to a combat slog in the lower levels, though there's no accounting for players doing player things.

You can download Devil's Tomb for free on the Mörk Borg website (direct link). It is not available in print.

The Hexed Gauntlet of Kagel-Secht

The Hexed Gauntlet of Kagel-Secht is a Mörk Borg "obituary dungeon" with art and story by Lukasz Kowalczuk, graphic design and text by Johan Nohr, and proofreading by Walton Wood. What is an "obituary dungeon"? I don't really know. It looks like this:

Basically, it's a comic strip/poster equivalent to roughly four letter-sized pages. It depicts a trio of characters going through a dungeon and dying to its various hazards. (Maybe that's what makes it an "obituary dungeon"?) The margins contain game information on monsters and traps, plus a mini map of the dungeon which clarifies how all of the areas connect. In other words, this is poster, comic strip, and dungeon all in one.

I love this thing! You just know there are people who hate this, who think it's everything wrong with Mörk Borg or art punk or indie RPGs or whatever sort of axe it is they have to grind. Admittedly, it's difficult to determine what exactly you're seeing at first, but once you figure out what it is and how the information is meant to flow, it's really cool. I for one can't wait to unfold this thing at the table and run it for my players.

The format leaves a few things to be desired. The mechanical marginalia does not address everything that happens in the comic. Is the giant statue that grabs the one character's head supposed to be an instant death trap? A monster? Can it be defeated without the power of the gauntlet? How am I meant to use the table of subterranean monsters? Why does the character who falls into the subterranean area transform into a raving mutant? What is the nature of Kagel-Secht the lich?

It's certainly not the greatest dungeon I've ever seen, but the unique presentation is enough for it to really sing to me.

The Hexed Gauntlet of Kagel-Secht is available in print by way of Mörk Borg Cult: Heretic. From what I can tell, no digital version is available (it is not included in the PDF version of Heretic). And really, this one is worth having a physical copy of.

Nurse the Rot

Nurse the Rot is a dungeon offered in the final pages of Mörk Borg Cult: Heretic. It is meant to showcase the two new monsters described in the preceding pages: the Borg Bitor (a giant centipede which lays its single black egg inside of a human infant, the infant in turn eventually transforms into an adult Bitor to perpetuate the grotesque cycle) and the Rotten Nurse (an invincible undead nurse guilty of horrendous crimes who traps her victims inside a "mental torture prison" until they either die or break free).

The two monsters and accompanying dungeon are written by Pelle Nilsson. The art and graphic design are by Johan Nohr. Nohr's art is, as always, evocative, simultaneous dark yet splashed with tactical neon color in his signature style:

The dungeon itself folds out from the description of the Rotten Nurse into a two-page spread:

This does not translate well to the PDF version of the book, but looks very cool in physical form.

The adventure takes place in Chapel Olundan, in which the PCs must find the Staff of Awful Light, or else the village of Tünstal will forever fall into darkness. Why do the cynical, nihilistic, rat bastard PCs typical created by Mörk Borg's random character creation care? Well, it was one of the PC's aunt's dying wish.

Yeah...it's not a great hook. Well the Staff of Awful Light is probably pretty cool. Maybe the PCs want to retrieve it for their own nefarious ends? Well, maybe. But for some reason, the scenario doesn't describe what the Staff actually is or does. You'll have to come up with your own hook for this one. Either figure out a compelling use for the Staff and send the PCs after it or tie a monetary reward to clearing out the place. 

The scenario details roughly six areas as well as a handful of corridors connecting them. Each room's description points to the room it describes. The descriptions of the north, east, and south corridors are fittingly at the top, right hand side, and bottom of the spread, respectively. 

It's a bit daunting to try to read the descriptions in any sort of "order" like one might a more traditional layout, but it seems it would be easy to follow along as the PCs move from one area to the next in an actual game. One issue is that connections between rooms are only detailed in one of the two rooms' descriptions, so to find out that a particular door is locked, you will need to read the description of the "correct" room. Otherwise that information is easily missed.

As the stars of the show here are the Borg Bitor and the Rotten Nurse, I'll focus on their roles in the scenario. 

The Borg Bitor is in its nest in area 6. For some reason, the PCs get better (Mörk Borg's version of leveling up) when they enter the room, which is not something I've seen in any other Mörk Borg scenario to date. It's not like the Bitor is particularly deadly - it has a medium amount of hit points, medium armor, a sticky glue which is DR 18 ("should not be possible", according to the core rulebook) to escape, and a save or die venom which is just DR 6 ("so simple people laugh at you for failing") to resist. It seems like an odd choice, is all.

Inside the Bitor's nest is the Staff of Awful Light, so the PCs will need to get past the Bitor to complete their objective. There should be three ways to access this area, but one way is through an "impossible to pass" blazing bone fire (unclear if the bones can be passed if the fire is extinguished) and the other is through an "impenetrable" sheet of skin. That leaves just the third path, which is a locked door. The key is in a murky canal guarded by a "starving Sludger" (whatever that is - the scenario isn't specific, but it has a lot of hit points, medium armor, and can destroy armor with its attacks). Why one would create a room with three means of ingress and make two of them impassible is beyond me. I would change that.

The Rotten Nurses are hidden in a secret room, which is undetectable unless the Nurses leave it. There are a few conditions which will cause the Nurses to leave the room, one of which is if the PCs touch the stairs leading to the locked door behind which is the Borg Bitor's nest. As I mentioned, as written, this is the only way to get to the Bitor, which guards the Staff, so the PCs will have to alert the Nurses if they hope to complete their objective.

If alerted, the Nurses move to a random room to investigate. Every 10 minutes, they move to another random room, presumably until they locate the PCs or the PCs escape. I like this dynamic element of the Nurses' behavior. What I don't like is that the scenario doesn't specify how many of them there are (the description of the room they hide in only says "a group of Rotten Nurses"). The description of the Rotten Nurses on the prior page says that there were originally two dozen of them, so maybe that's how many. That seems like a lot. You could maybe roll 6d4, 4d6, 3d8, or 2d12 to determine it.

Overall, this is an okay dungeon. It needs a good hook. I wish the Borg Bitor was a bit more fearsome (as is, it is overshadowed in its own spotlight scenario by the Sludger, which is much scarier), and I wish the "mental torture prison" power of the Rotten Nurse was a bit more interesting from a gameplay perspective than simply "roll ability tests until you succeed on one or die". Overall I think this would make a decent one-shot, although not as good of one as Bloat or the Hexed Gauntlet.

Nurse the Rot is available in print or PDF by way of Mörk Borg Cult: Heretic.

The 100-Hex Sandbox

As you've probably noticed, I've been spending some time using the tables found in Appendix B of the AD&D 1e DMG to populate my sandboxes, which I will definitely use in a real game at some point...

See also d66 Reasons Why the Castle is Totally Deserted, which is my attempt to answer a question that arose as a result of using the tables in the DMG, and Using Reaction Rolls to Determine Faction Relationships in the Sandbox, which is a nice companion to any of my posts about creating a sandbox.

Here is yet another take on using the AD&D 1e DMG to create a sandbox. First, allow me to remind you of this table:

I was looking at this table and thought about what it would be like to extrapolate the percentage chances of inhabitation per hex instead into a general rule. That is, instead of there being a 16% chance per hex of a settlement, castle, or ruin being present, maybe 16 in 100 hexes are populated with such locations. If you create a play area consisting of 100 hexes, you simply stock 16 of them with such locations, rather than rolling to determine their contents. 

Obviously this is statistically likely anyway, but this spares you a lot of rolling and creates a more standardized area of play. (Rolling is fun, of course, and standardization can be boring, but bear with me.)

You could of course instead prepare a play area of 50 or 25 hexes and stock 8 or 4 of them respectively for a more manageable map. This has a slight downside, however, as towns and cities are each 1-in-100. With a 100-hex play area, I feel comfortable saying yes, a town and a city both definitely exist in this space.

I present to you my 100 hexes:

You can generate the terrain however you see fit. As usual, I'm using some variation of Welsh Piper's Hex-Based Campaign Design. In this case, I rolled d3 to determine the climate and got 2 (temperate), then rolled d6 to determine the predominant terrain and got 6 (water). This area is a freshwater lake or sound or something. 

Using 100 hexes and the Welsh Piper method, I can also easily standardize the terrain as follows:

• 50 water hexes
• 25 plains hexes
• 16 to 17 forest hexes
• 2 to 3 each of desert, hill, and swamp hexes

(That part is optional and not super important, but it will make a later step easier.)

Now here is the list of inhabited hexes to add:

• 3 single dwellings
• 2 thorps
• 2 hamlets
• 2 villages
• 1 town
• 1 city
• 3 castles
• 2 ruins

There are four types of ruins, so you have to roll to determine which kind they are. I got a village and a shrine. If you instead want to have one of each type using this method, you will need to make a 200-hex sandbox!

Castles, of course, have their own subtables on another page:

There are technically 36 types of castles! There are 9 types on Castle Table I, but each of those types can in turn be totally deserted, deserted but inhabited by a monster, inhabited by humans, or inhabited by character-types. If you factor in the four types of humans on Castle Sub-Table II-A, the 11 character-types on Castle Sub-Table II-B, and all the monsters listed on the various outdoor random monster encounter tables, the possibilities explode beyond the scope of my comprehension. It is not worth it to try to make a play area that includes all of these!

Instead, we will have three castles. You could roll for all of them or, since 35% will be small, 45% will be medium, and 20% will be large, you could instead decide that one is small, one is medium, and the third is either small (5%), medium (35%), or large (60%). I roll and get a 5, so I have two small castles. 

The exact type of "castle" doesn't matter much to me, so I decide that small castles are towers, medium castles are keeps, and large castles are proper castles. I roll for the state of each and get a tower inhabited by brigands, a totally deserted keep, and a castle inhabited by a fighter.

Returning to my map, I start placing locations:

I place the city in the middle, because why not. I place the town and villages each a day's travel from the city, and randomly place everything else. I then draw in "roads" (although in this case they are merely a visual representation of how people get from one place to another, mostly by boat) connecting the town and city and going off the map, presumably to other towns and cities. Then I connect the other settlements by the shortest possible path to that main route. I draw in the "roads" at this stage because hexes through which they pass will count as inhabited, meaning they won't contain monsters' lairs.

Finally, I then place the monsters. Remember when I said that standardizing the terrain would come in handy? Well, since I know that my 100 hexes include 50 water hexes, 25 plains hexes, 17 forest hexes, 2 desert hexes, 3 hill hexes, and 3 swamp hexes, I can now subtract those which are inhabited and end up with the following uninhabited hexes:

• 23 water
• 18 plains
• 15 forest
• 1 desert
• 3 hill
• 3 swamp

Why does that matter? Because each type of terrain has a percentage chance of containing a monster lair:

• Water, plains, and desert: 10%
• Forest and hill: 20%
• Swamp: 40%

(I'm pulling these numbers from 2e, not 1e, and so am straying a bit from the spirit of this exercise. 1e instead uses population density to determine the chance of encountering a monster. However I'm also not using the 1e method of random terrain generation, so we are already beyond the glow of Gygax's light.)

Based on the percentages, the 23 water hexes will contain two monster lairs, with a 30% chance of a third. The plains hexes will contain 1 monster lair with an 80% chance of a third, the forest hexes will contain 3 monster lairs, and so on. I roll dice when necessary and get:

• Water: 2 monster lairs
• Plains: 2 monster lairs
• Forest: 3 monster lairs
• Desert: 0 monster lairs
• Hills: 1 monster lair
• Swamp: 1 monster lair

I tuck these in little pockets of wilderness, not too close to the city or the stronghold, but close enough to civilization to interact with it:

Voila! I think this is a pretty decent place from which to start a campaign, and it's much smaller than the other sandbox I've been posting about on this blog. There's a town, a city, plenty of smaller settlements and dwellings, a minor stronghold, a major stronghold, three ruins to explore (including a stronghold which can eventually be reclaimed by the player characters), and nine monster lairs to cause complications for the region.

The point of this exercise is to demonstrate that, rather than rolling on tables, you could instead pick a size for your sandbox and use the tables to extrapolate what all should be included in the region. Or, pick the things from the tables you want to be sure are included (in my case, at least one city) and determine the size of the sandbox from there. 

I won't go so far as to say this is the right way to do it, but it's another option in the toolbox. It presupposes that you care at all about what's written in the 1e DMG, which many don't. And that's totally valid! It describes a very particular type of game.

I am curious to about one other matter - how big would a sandbox need to be to "guarantee" the presence of a dragon? They are exceptionally rare in AD&D's encounter tables, such that in a hex containing a monster lair, there is only a 2% chance of it being the lair of a dragon in plains, desert, hills, and mountains, and only a 1% chance in forest and swamp.

Considering that roughly 60% of my hexes were uninhabited, and that there is roughly a 19% chance of any uninhabited hex containing a monster lair averaged across the different terrain types (again, using the 2e values), we can expect an average of 11 or 12 monster lairs per 100 hexes. Since there is either a 1 or 2% chance of such a lair belonging to a dragon, let's call it a 1.5% chance. That means that 1 in 66 or 67 monster lairs will be a dragon lair. 

That's roughly one dragon per 600 hexes, or one dragon per 6 cities! So if you want to "guarantee" a dragon in your sandbox, take the above map and multiply it by 6. Or, you know, just make however big of a map you want and plunk a dragon down somewhere. It doesn't matter. But I had fun with it as a thought exercise. Maybe you did too.

Using Reaction Rolls to Determine Faction Relationships in the Sandbox

I wanted to do a quick demonstration of how I use reaction rolls to determine the nature of relationships between factions in a sandbox campaign.

Reaction rolls are most often used in the context of encounters. That is, the player characters run into a group of 10 orcs in the dungeon (or 100 orcs in the wilderness) and the Dungeon Master rolls some dice to determine if the orcs are hostile, neutral, or friendly. If negotiations take place, the DM can make additional reaction rolls to determine if the orcs are offended, unmoved, or pleased by any given approach or offer.

The exact method of determining a monster or nonplayer character's reaction to the PCs varies by edition, but I have settled on my own take on the common 2d6 table:

2d6       Reaction

2-3        Hostile

4-5        Unfriendly

6-8        Neutral

9-10      Friendly

11-12    Helpful

Hostile creatures usually attack on sight (the point is that their intention to attack is made clear - the PCs can often attempt to dissuade them from doing so if they're quick enough). Unfriendly creatures threaten, mess with, or seek to impede the PCs in some nonviolent way. Neutral creatures are uncertain and will often seek more information before reacting either way. Friendly creatures are interested in the PCs, often want something from them, and are willing to amicably negotiate to get it. Helpful creatures are sycophantically friendly and will aid the PCs with little question, sometimes even joining them in their current endeavor.

I modify the 2d6 roll by the alignment of the reacting creature: -2 if Evil, -1 if Chaotic, +1 if Lawful, and +2 if Good. The modifiers stack, so a Chaotic Evil creature reacts at -3 (and so never starts out helpful) and a Lawful Good creature reacts at +3 (and so never starts out hostile). Once negotiations begin, I modify additional reaction rolls by the creature's present disposition and by the negotiating PC's reaction roll adjustment from Charisma or the result of their ability check, depending on the edition (read more about how I adjudicate social interactions in D&D 5e here).

But there's a lot more you can do with the reaction roll. Here, I'm interested in using this mechanic to determine the social dynamics of a sandbox setting. I started thinking about this after reading this post over at dungeon doll. The post supposes that settlements have a somewhat wary attitude towards adventurers, and that depending on what the PCs say upon arriving there, they may be turned away or welcomed as friends.

I have a slightly different take. Rather than all settlements being uniformly wary, I like the idea that some settlements might be more or less (un)friendly towards outsiders than others - the PCs are more likely to receive a warm welcome in the town ruled by a gregarious mayor who loves feting heroes than the one ruled by a wicked sorcerer who sees enemies everywhere. Thus, I favor making a reaction roll for each settlement before the PCs ever interact with it - this determines their disposition towards adventurer types in general.

This also got me thinking about the way in which stronghold rulers respond to the PC's incursions in original D&D:

The text then goes on to explain that fighting-men will demand a joust or toll (unclear if this is for hostile or neutral fighting-men or both), non-hostile magic-users will send passersby after treasure by way of a geas spell, hostile magic-users will demand a toll of magical items or gold, and non-hostile clerics will demand a tithe or use a quest spell to send the PCs to complete a task.

The specifics aren't what interest me - rather, I'm interested in the idea that stronghold rulers have standard reactions to adventurers passing through their realm. However, implied setting be damned, I'm not crazy about the prescriptiveness of it (i.e., each ruler will either do this or that depending on their type). I'd rather the individual ruler's reaction be determined by their own personality or alignment - the Lawful Good magic-user might invite the PCs in for tea and a fireside chat while the Chaotic Evil warlord charges out on horseback with twenty men to run them off or worse.

This can apply to monsters as well. Just because there's a dragon lair on the mountain's peak doesn't mean the dragon is flying about wreaking havoc on the countryside - the dragon might regularly travel into the village in human form to socialize with its people, play harmless pranks for its own amusement on those who wander too close to its lair, demand tribute from surrounding settlements, or simply be in a deep slumber. Just because it's there doesn't mean it's flying around daring adventurers to come slay it (although there's nothing to stop them from trying to do so anyway, once when they know there's a dragon about, or to stop some other NPC in the sandbox from steering them in that direction).

Here is an example using a small area I created using the AD&D 1e DMG's stocking procedures (because I can't help myself):

In this case, I'm mainly concerned with the inhabitants/factions of each location, so I've labeled them as such (i.e., "Brigands" instead of "Brigands' Castle").

First, I make a reaction roll for each group to determine their disposition should they encounter the PCs (each group's alignment and corresponding reaction roll are listed in parentheses):

• Tribe (N, 2d6): 7 (neutral)
• Brigands (CE, 2d6-3): 5 (unfriendly)
• Ghouls (CE, 2d6-3): 2 (hostile)
• Will-o'-wisp (CE, 2d6-3): 5 (unfriendly)
• Berserkers (N, 2d6): 6 (neutral)
• CN Homesteaders (2d6-1): 6 (neutral)
• NG Fighter (2d6+2): 6 (neutral)
• CN Cleric (2d6-1): 4 (unfriendly)
• LE Homesteaders (2d6-1): 8 (neutral)
• Wolves (N, 2d6): 7 (neutral)

As you can see, none of the factions in the region are so much as friendly towards the PCs, let alone helpful. If the players want allies, they will have to earn them! Fortunately, none but the ghouls deep within their swamp will attack the PCs on sight. The brigands will likely bully and extort them for treasure. The will-o'-wisp may attempt to lead them into some deadly trap or hazard, but won't go so far as to start zapping them with lightning unless provoked. The cleric will likely send out riders to round them up, collect a tithe, and question them sharply about their business. The rest will be willing to talk with the party, and may become friends or foes depending on how the players treat them.

How these factions react to the PCs is only half the story. I also want to know how they relate to each other. Are there alliances? Obligations? Uneasy truces? Simmering tensions? Violent conflicts? These are the fine details that turn a boring-at-first-glance neutral reaction into gameable material.

The simple approach is to say the reactions listed above apply to all of the faction's interactions with its neighbors. That is, the Neutral Good fighter who is neutral towards the PCs is also neutral towards everyone else in the region. But that's a bit dull, isn't it? It makes more sense to me that the fighter might sit back in their castle, waiting to see what moves the party makes, while simultaneously having an uneasy truce with the cleric and open hostilities with the brigands.

Another option is to simply use a common sense approach. I can assume that no one likes the brigands, who are violent predators without moral scruples. Likewise, everyone probably views the ghouls and will-o'-wisp as undead affronts to nature and life. The fighter is Good and probably protects the homesteaders, who are vulnerable. The homesteaders probably hate the wolves, who steal their chickens or whatever. Those dynamics sound perfectly serviceable for a single campaign, but over the course of multiple campaigns in different regions, those same assumptions would start to get boring.

Instead, as is often the case, I like to let the dice decide, and I interpret their results to the best of my ability. I take a look at my map and determine which factions are likely to interact with one another. Then, I make reaction rolls for each faction to determine how they relate to each other faction they cross paths with.

In order to determine which relationships I must consider, I first have to determine which groups are likely to interact. I am using 6-mile hexes and assuming that a person can travel 8 hours and 24 miles per day (3 miles per hour). Here are the movement costs of each type of terrain: 

Grassland: x1

Forest: x2   

Hills: x3   

Swamp: x8 

This means that a normal person can travel from the center to the edge (and vice versa) of a grassland hex in one hour, a forest hex in two hours, a hills hex in three hours, and a swamp hex in eight hours. I am assuming that each of these groups typically venture only half a day's (four hours') travel from their home so as to be able to return before nightfall (or the end of whatever their activity cycle is, keeping in mind there are undead and wolves involved). That means that most creatures (excepting the ghouls in the swamp) can venture partially into the hexes immediately surrounding their own.

We will soon find that these locations are vastly interconnected for a few reasons. For now, I will keep things simple by focusing on those locations which are adjacent to each other.

For example, neither the tribesmen nor the brigands are able to reach each others' lairs in half a day's travel on foot (it would take five hours), but there is a good chance they meet somewhere in the middle now and then. Because of their respective alignments, I roll 2d6 for the tribesmen and 2d6-3 for the brigands. For the tribesmen I get 8 (neutral), and for the brigands I get 1 (hostile). I interpret this to mean that the tribesmen were happy to mind their own business, but the brigands have initiated a violent conflict and are attempting to eradicate them, enslave them, or whatever. 

The point is that the brigands are attacking the tribesmen, and the tribesmen want to be left alone. The players can get involved on either side - the brigands will want them to help eliminate the tribesmen, whereas the tribesmen will want them to get the brigands to simply stop, whether by defeating them in battle, negotiating a peace, enchanting their ruler, or supplanting them.

Looking to the south, the berserkers are able to reach the CN homesteaders' dwelling, and vice versa. I roll 2d6 for the berserkers and 2d6-1 for the homesteaders. Somewhat bafflingly, I roll 12 (helpful) for the berserkers and 2 (hostile) for the homesteaders. There are 60 berserkers and just 9 homesteaders. I don't interpret this as violent conflict because the homesteaders would obviously be wiped out if they initiated hostilities.

I'm imagining the homesteaders as rugged individualists, not particularly concerned with right nor wrong. Perhaps the berserkers are a little too friendly, helping themselves to food and drink, having loud parties, asking to marry the homesteaders' daughters, and the like. There is a cultural divide, and the berserkers do not see that they've offended the homesteaders in any way. The homesteaders are trying to carve out a domain for themselves, and want the berserkers off their land. They won't resort to violence themselves, but they may seek out help from outside in getting rid of the problem without regard for how it's done. 

Next, I look to the NG fighter and LE homesteaders. For the fighter I roll 2d6+2 and get 9 (friendly), and for the homesteaders I roll 2d6-1 and get 6 (neutral). In this case, the fighter is favorable towards the homesteaders, but not necessarily altruistic. It is likely that the fighter protects them and that they supply the castle with food or whatever, but the two parties have no great love for each other.

But there are more relationships then just those. Going solely based on the movement rates of normal people, these are the other groups that likely interact with one another, with their attitudes towards each other in parentheses, and a short description of the relationship:

• Ghouls (hostile)/Berserkers (friendly): This is an odd one! The berserkers have tried to seek out the ghouls for some reason, but the ghouls attack them on sight. Perhaps the ghouls are some forsaken fellow tribe with which the berserkers wish to reestablish contact and help redeem?
• Will-o'-wisp (unfriendly)/Berserkers (neutral): The will-o'-wisp attempts to lure the berserkers off into deadly hazards or scare them away from its ruin, and the berserkers want nothing to do with it. They probably have taboos about the strange light in the old ruin, but they aren't interested in proactively recruiting adventurers to deal with it.
• Berserkers (neutral)/NG Fighter (friendly): The fighter is trying to establish a positive relationship with the berserkers, but the berserkers are on the fence and need additional incentive to come to the table.
• CN Homesteaders (unfriendly)/NG Fighter (neutral): The fighter is indifferent to the homesteaders, but they are secretly undermining or subverting the fighter in some way. Perhaps they are withholding protection money from the fighter or otherwise resisting the fighter's lordship.
• NG Fighter (neutral)/Wolves (neutral): The wolves aren't bothering anybody and the fighter is letting them be.
• LE Homesteaders (unfriendly)/Wolves (neutral): The wolves aren't bothering anybody, but the homesteaders want them out because you know, farmers don't usually want wolves hanging around!

But there's more to consider, because not all of these creatures have the same movement rates. Both the will-o'-wisp and the wolves move 50% faster than a normal person (meaning they can cover 36 miles per day, or 18 miles in half a day), and the will-o'-wisp flies (meaning it ignores additional terrain movement cost from forests, hills, and swamps). Furthermore, the brigands, the fighter, and the cleric have light horses, which move twice as fast as a normal person (48 miles per day, or 24 miles in half a day).

Considering all that, we have the following additional relationships:

• Tribe (unfriendly)/Will-o'-wisp (neutral): The will-o'-wisp doesn't bother the tribe (perhaps they have some magical protections against it), but the tribe is superstitious and would prefer if someone dealt with it.
• Brigands (neutral)/Will-o'-wisp (unfriendly): The will-o'-wisp tries to lure the brigands into its haunted wood. They avoid it, and they aren't interested in doing anything about it.
• Ghouls (hostile)/Will-o'-wisp (unfriendly): This is another odd one because the ghouls are very isolated in their swamp. They can't actually do anything to the will-o'-wisp, which would need to come to them. Perhaps the will-o'-wisp, being a more powerful undead, shows up occasionally to lord its superiority over the ghouls?
• Will-o'-wisp (neutral)/CN Homesteaders (hostile): The homesteaders are actively trying to remove the will-o'-wisp, which isn't actually bothering them. I wouldn't be surprised if they are seeking to claim its ruin or the treasure therein. 
• Will-o'-wisp (hostile)/NG Fighter (neutral): Similar to the brigands/tribe dynamic, this indicates that the will-o'-wisp has initiated the conflict and that the fighter simply wishes for it to end. Perhaps men-at-arms have been turning up dead after the night's watch, and the lord isn't sure yet what is responsible? Perhaps the deaths look like accidents or predations by other factions? Perhaps there is just too much else to deal with, and this is on the backburner, with guards instructed to be extra cautious on patrol?
• Will-o'-wisp (neutral)/CN Cleric (friendly): For whatever reason, the cleric (a class that originally existed primarily to combat undead), it friendly towards this undead. I would have to know more about the individual cleric, but perhaps they have insight into the spirit's true nature. Perhaps they know how to put it to rest, and have some degree of empathy for it?
• Will-o'-wisp (hostile)/Wolves (friendly): Another odd one. I'm not sure what to make of it! If I am really unable to come up with something, I might reroll this one.
• NG Fighter (friendly)/CN Cleric (unfriendly): These two are not on good terms, but the fighter wants to be. The cleric has some sort of problem with them. Again, I would need to know more about the individuals.
• CN Cleric (hostile)/LE homesteaders (neutral): The cleric has attempted to run off the homesteaders (they probably object to the homesteaders' Lawfulness), but the homesteaders - for good reason - want to be left alone. The fighter is probably protecting them from further predations, which is likely the source of conflict between the two stronghold rulers.
• CN Cleric (unfriendly)/Wolves (neutral): The wolves sometimes slip past the homesteaders into the cleric's lands and are promptly run off.

So, that's a lot! There are 10 factions in this relatively small region, which results in 19 relationships to keep track of. If that seems overkill, it's probably because it is! Keep in mind that if I doubled the size of this map, I would not only potentially end up with 10 more factions and 19 more relationships within that area, but that those new factions would also have relationships with many of those in this area. 

On my hex key, in the entry for each location, I include a very brief summary of the local faction's relationships towards its neighbors. For example:

NG Fighter's Castle

Relationships:

• Will-o'-wisp (neutral): Will-o'-wisp sometimes attacks guards at night (hostile). Looks like bizarre accidents. Stretched too thin to deal with.

• Berserkers (friendly): Attempting to court/recruit. Berserkers on the fence (neutral).

• CN Homesteaders (neutral): Not offering protection yet. Homesteaders refuse lordship (unfriendly).

• CN Cleric (friendly): Wants an alliance, but tensions over protection of LE homesteaders (unfriendly).

• LE Homesteaders (friendly): Provides protection. Collects food/taxes (neutral).

• Wolves (neutral): Unbothered. Wolves haven't harmed anyone (neutral).

If this method is too much for your game, you might prefer one of the simplified methods I mentioned earlier (one reaction roll per faction which applies to all others, or determining relationships using common sense and tropes). I personally enjoy the challenge of interpreting these rolls, and appreciate the nuance they provide. It may adversely impact the quantity of locations I can detail in a region, but I find it yields a better quality sandbox. Hopefully you agree!

Stocking a Sandbox with the AD&D 1e DMG (Part 3)

I am back again to stock a third ring of hexes using the AD&D 1e DMG! You can find Parts 1 and 2 here and here. 

As with previous installments in this series, I begin by filling in terrain:

As a reminder, I am using Welsh Piper's Hex-Based Campaign Design to determine the terrain layout of the map. This third ring of hexes has five plains hexes, three forest hexes, two hills hexes, and two water hexes. I like the way this is turning out, with scattered forests and highlands and some sort of huge, weird-shaped lake or coastline to the northwest.

To keep it varied, I'm going to stock the hexes in a weird order: forest (SW) > plains (W) > hills (SW) > plains (N) > water (NW) > plains (NNE) > forest (E) > plains (SE) > hills (S) > plains (NE) > water (NNW) > forest (SE). Starting with the SW forest hex:

This is interesting! I have a medium castle ruled by a Chaotic Good 11th-level cleric, a thorp (population 70 with a Neutral 2nd-level cleric), a hamlet (population 300 with a Neutral Good 1st-level fighter, a 2nd-level paladin, and a Chaotic Good 4th-level elf fighter/magic-user), a single dwelling (population 4), and a ki-rin's lair (!) right in the middle of it all. (As you can see, I decided to stop combining adjacent settlements into one. I don't really have a reason for changing my approach. It felt wrong somehow!)

Since the center hex is both forest and swamp, I rolled d100 once and compared it to both tables - I rolled 31, which is ki-rin/lamamsu/shedu on both tables! I rolled d3 and got ki-rin. They apparently live in the clouds and never touch the ground, so I wasn't sure how to indicate this on the map. I landed on representing the lair with a big ol' cyclone-looking thing. I have no idea why it's in the swamp. It would certainly be a powerful ally to recruit in future battles against the orcs to the north or the brigands to the northeast!

Here is the W plains hex:

Hell yes! I have my first city. It has a population of 10,000, so it is the smallest of cities allowed by the 1e DMG. That still means that it contains 100 character-types, broken up as such:

• 65 low-level (1st- to 3rd-level)
• 20 mid-level (4th- to 7th-level)
• 10 high-level (7th- to12th-level)
• 5 very high-level (9th- to 20th-level)

The five very high-level character-types are a NG 8th-level elf fighter/thief, a LG 10th-level cleric, a CG 16th-level fighter, a 16th-level paladin, and a CE 18th-level illusionist! 

One interpretation could be that this is a levelocracy, and so these high-level character-types rule the city. The city ruled by a Chaotic Evil illusionist is probably not a great place to live! Perhaps there is a power struggle between the illusionist and this league of Good-doers, with the Lawful and the Chaotic not quite seeing eye-to-eye but united in common purpose against the sinister illusionist.

Or, you could just say the city is ruled by a king or whatever and the character-types just live there doing their own thing. I personally have never arrived at a totally satisfying answer to this question.

Prepping this city for play would be a lot of work. I wrote about my thoughts on preparing settlements for play here. Using guidelines from Brave, I determine that the city has six districts. These could also be determined by the character-types listed above: the magical district where the evil illusionist dwells, the temple district where the cleric and paladin offer sanctuary to the downtrodden, the district around the rowdy fighter's stronghold, and the elf enclave, plus maybe a market district and an upper class neighborhood. Something like that is more or less enough to get things moving.

We mustn't spend too much time on the city, because this hex also contains a fortress, a dungeon, and a monster lair! 

Both of the fortresses are small shell keeps. One is totally deserted, and the other is ruled by a CG 9th-level fighter. Perhaps the protege of the CG fighter in the city? The fighter has five 6th-level henchmen: a cleric and four fighters. The deserted keep was ruled by an assassin, but has since been cursed by the gods and shunned. Oh, assassin lord of old, what did you do? Perhaps the ruin is haunted by the spirits of those the assassin killed?

Lastly, we have a hill giant lair! There are three bachelor hill giants therein (the Monster Manual specifies that hill giantesses are present only if four or more giants are encountered) with two giant lizards for guards. Residents of the city must be careful not to wander into hill giant country! It does beg the question: Why don't the high-level Good-aligned character-types of the city deal with the giants? Perhaps the illusionist is in league with them, and conceals their lair against attempts to find them! Perhaps they simply have more pressing matters to attend to.

That was a surprisingly interesting hex, but there are many hexes to cover, and so we must move on to the SW hills hex:

This is a very crowded hex! I am now beginning to question this entire endeavor!

Although those settlements in the northeast corner look very close together, due to the movement cost when traveling through the hills (a multiplier of 3, so 3 hours to get from the center of the hex to the edge and vice versa), they're all actually nearly a day's travel from one another. Here's a line about each:

• Single dwelling: Population 4, no character-types
• Northern thorp: Population 30, no character-types
• Southern thorp: Population 50, N 3rd-level dwarf fighter
• Southern hamlet: Population 400, CE 1st-level fighter, NG 2nd-level fighter, NG 2nd-level ranger, NE 3rd-level fighter
• Northern hamlet: Population 400, LN 1st-level dwarf thief, LG 2nd-level magic-user, 3rd-level druid, LE 4th-level fighter

The moathouse was ruled by a cleric and was the site of a great miracle, but it now totally deserted. Perhaps it is a holy site with a taboo against occupation. Perhaps its dungeons are protected by celestial guardians.

The deserted castle is a medium walled castle with a keep. It was ruled by a magic-user. Now, it is inhabited by a will-o-wisp! I suppose the castle is still home to all manner of unstable arcane dangers, which are the hazards to which the will-o-wisp attempts to lure its victims.

Finally, the monster lairs:

• A den of 155 male orcs with 5 leaders, 15 assistants, a sub-chief, 12 guards, a chief, 20 bodyguards, 77 female orcs, and 155 young orcs
• A cave of 6 griffons with a single egg
• A cave of 20 male bugbears with a leader, chief, sub-chief, 10 female bugbears, and 10 young bugbears
• A giant ant nest with 44 worker ants, 8 warrior ants, a queen ant, and an egg chamber guarded by an additional 18 workers and 5 warriors

The bugbears and ants probably keep more or less to themselves (it would take a full day just for the bugbears to come down the mountain and go back up). The residents of the southern hamlet and northern thorp most likely have run-ins with orcs, and probably don't stand much of a chance defending against them. They might pay tribute to the orcs regularly to continue living in relative peace. The griffons can fly over the full hex and then some in a day, so residents of this hex probably know better than to keep horses. And probably everyone in the area knows about the old wizard's castle on the mountain that still glows with a haunting light at night.

We must drag ourselves away once more from the intrigue of this hex, moving on to the N plains hex:

This hex is surprisingly sparsely inhabited. Here is a summary of what's here:

• A thorp of 50 people with a CN 3rd-level fighter
• A totally deserted tower, built by a fighter and conquered by invaders, then abandoned
• Another griffon den, this one with 11 griffons, 2 eggs, and 5 fledglings
• A leprechaun burrow home to a single leprechaun
• A tribe of 57 tribesmen with 5 3rd-level fighters, a 5th-level chief, 3 4th-level subchiefs, a 3rd-level druid, 5 4th-level druids, a 6th-level druid, and an 8th-level druid, 57 women and 57 children, and 20 slaves
• A hippogriff nest with 9 hippogriffs, 3 eggs, and 2 fledglings

I've written before about how the description of "tribesmen" in the AD&D Monster Manual is repugnant. When I rolled them up here, I considered rerolling, but decided to keep the result for the sake of this exercise. I would not treat them as mud hut-dwelling cannibal savages as the Monster Manual describes them, but more like real world indigenous people with their own customs, folklore, wants, and needs.

This is the third griffon nest I've rolled up. I would be surprised if there's a single horse to be found in this entire region! With all those eggs and fledglings (worth 29,000 gp total), this is also the most valuable nest for an unscrupulous party of adventurers. Likewise, the eggs and fledglings in the hippogriff nest are worth from 7,000 to 10,000 gp. It's a poacher's paradise! One must also imagine that the griffons and hippogriffs (who don't like each other very much) clash in the skies quite often.

On to the NW water hex:

• A thorp of 70 with a LE 7th-level fighter
• A small castle inhabited by 126 brigands with 6 3rd-level fighters, 4 4th-level fighters, 3 5th-level fighters, 2 6th-level fighters, a 9th-level fighter leaders, 6 2nd-level fighter guards, a 7th-level fighter lieutenant, 2 important prisoners, and 50 camp followers/slaves
• A ruined tomb, abandoned by its original creators

Not a whole lot to say here. The thorp is, for now, blissfully isolated from everything, but is possibly ruled by a tyrannical warrior overlord. The brigands are a powerful faction in the area, but they're not on the water, so it's unlikely that they mess with the thorp much. We'll have to wait and see what's in the surrounding hexes to see what their impact is. The tomb is in shallow water, so is probably not totally submerged, but does present a neat opportunity for a flooded dungeon experience if desired. Or maybe it's on an island too small to be on the map. Perhaps it can be explored only at low tide?

Here is the NNE plains hex:

I did not generate a single "habitation" (i.e., settlement, castle, or ruin) in this hex! I did, however, generate another tribe of indigenous peoples, and another hippogriff nest, and the second troll hole in the region. By now you can probably imagine what these locations entail. I won't belabor this post by detailing all of these again.

Here's the E forest hex:

Here we have a hamlet of 100 people with a CE 11th-level (!) thief. We also have a second city, this time with 30,000 people - that's 15 very high-level character-types! There are two 20th-level fighters there - one CN and one CE. The city is in the middle of the forest for some reason. 

Immediately north of the city in the deep forest is a hieracosphinx lair. The hieracosphinx is an inexplicably Chaotic Evil, low intelligence, hawk-headed sphinx that eats people. There are 5 of them dwelling in this lair.

Here's the SE plains hex:

Not much in the way of settlements here, but two fortresses (including another brigands' castle!), a berserker camp, and our first ruined city!

The berserker camp right next to the ranger's stronghold is a bit unusual, but I've determined using opposed reaction rolls that they're indifferent to one another. Perhaps the ranger, themself an outlander, has made common cause or some sort of truce with the likeminded berserkers, but they're not at the point of working together.

The city was destroyed by raiders, so presumably conquered and then razed. The brigands might have something to with it, though they're rather isolated deep within the forest.

Giant spiders are the best kind - they're Tolkien's Mirkwood spiders, big and Evil, with save or die venom.

Here is the S hills hex:

Lmao. A castle inhabited by bandits, right next to a cave complex inhabited by brigands. And just a few hexes away, a brigand camp! The people of the hamlet are safe so long as they stay on their mountain, but the people of the thorp are ruled by a bandit king.

We also have another hill giant lair, and I got the opportunity to roll on the dragon subtable for the first time. Unfortunately, I got a chimera rather than a true dragon. This is nonetheless an area densely inhabited by bandits, brigands, and a few really scary monsters.

Here's the NE plains hex:

Not much going on here. A totally deserted shell keep (formerly ruled by a cleric, now cursed by the gods and shunned - must not have been a very good cleric!), plus our first demihuman stronghold. This one is a moathouse ruled by a NG 9th-level elf fighter/magic-user. No monster lairs!

We're nearing the end. Here's the NNW water hex:

Here are two ordinary single dwellings, a totally deserted tower (once ruled by a magic-user, now conquered and abandoned), and a buccaneer's warship (buccaneers, who are Neutral, not to be confused with pirates, who are Chaotic Evil). Perhaps the buccaneers are responsible for razing the wizard's tower?

There are 182 buccaneers, with 3 3rd-level fighters, a 5th-level fighter, 3 ransomed prisoners, an 8th-level captain, a 7th-level lieutenant, 4 4th-level mates, a 12th-level cleric, and a 6th-level magic-user. Considering the highest-level character-type is a cleric, these buccaneers must have some sort of religious bent. Perhaps they worship some sort of deity of the sea?

Finally, here is the SE forest hex:

The RNG did not want to make it easy for me to wrap this up! I rolled five habitations: the single dwelling, the thorp, the hamlet, the small keep ruled by a LG dwarf fighter, and the massive fortress complex ruled by a N thief. The other six locations are "monster lairs", half of which ended up being a nomad encampment and a halfling shire (both of which are essentially also settlements) and the castle lair of an order of dervishes (itself a stronghold). The remaining three monster lairs are our third hill giant lair, an ankheg nest, and an ogre den. This is very densely populated!

There are 6 hill giants. The hamlet has 300 people, so I estimate they can rally 30 or so defenders in a pinch, plus 3 low-level character-types. 5 to 6 warriors per giant might be enough to defend the hamlet, but it's not certain. The nomad encampment has 200 warriors plus leader types, so the giants are definitely not messing with them.

The nomads are predisposed slightly negatively towards both the dervishes and the dwarf lord, both of whom are in turn favorable towards the nomads. Perhaps the nomads have just shown up in the area and are being belligerent and making great demands of both strongholds. Both the dervishes and the dwarf lord are Lawful Good, so perhaps they are negotiating in good faith and attempting to get the nomads to go on their way.

The thief is favorable towards the dervishes, but the dervishes are indifferent towards the thief. They don't want anything to do with the scoundrel. The thief, however, commands the largest stronghold in the entire region!

The single dwelling is, unfortunately, both ankheg and ogre food. The halflings of the nearby shire are Neutral and insular, and won't do anything to aid the human homesteaders unless significantly compensated for the inconvenience.

Here is the entirety of the map after this round of stocking:

(Click on it first, then right-click to open the image in a new tab. Then you can zoom in, at which point it should be legible.)

As you can hopefully see, this is an incredibly dense play area with plenty to do at all levels of play. It would take ages to detail all these settlements, fortresses, ruins, and monster lairs. Keep in mind that the settlements need names, NPCs, locations, and in some cases, districts. All of the character-types in the settlements and fortresses (and certain monster lairs) need to be rolled up like characters, and they all have their own magic items. The ruins need to be mapped and stocked as dungeons with multiple levels, encounter tables, and the like. The monster lairs need to be stocked with treasure.

On top of that, I need to take a good look at the overall map and see how locations in one atlas hex might interact with those in adjacent atlas hexes. There are griffons, sphinxes, giant eagles, hippogriffs, and manticores flying here and there across nearly this entire region! The south is infested with brigands!

Despite how much is already here, the blank spaces at the edge of the map beckon to me. I don't even have a true dragon yet. The game is Dungeons & Dragons! Of course I want to finish this map!

And maybe I will, but not for a while. There's plenty here to inspire years of play if I so desire. I'm not planning on playing AD&D this year, but I genuinely believe that a map like this, using the AD&D method of stocking, could support a game of AD&D, modern D&D, OSE, ShadowDark, and many other game systems.

Just for fun, here is a version with the grid turned off, elevation turned on, and a road going through the one town to connect the two cities (ignore the dark/light grey blank hexes - it's a side effect of turning off GM only objects on this particular map):

And here's a version with every settlement/dwelling connected to that road. This is unrealistic and probably not how I'd do the final map, but it is illustrative in showing how isolated some of the inhabited areas are:

Cheers!