I thought it would be a fun exercise to try stocking a sandbox using the procedures presented in the appendices of the AD&D 1e DMG. I'll be using Hexographer to create the map.
A good chunk of this post is very thorough. My intention is not to bore, but to demonstrate how detailed the rules for AD&D can be - whether this level of detail is a strength or a weakness of the system is for the individual's judgement.
I start with a blank map:
I have the map divided into large "atlas" hexes of 19 hexes each because it breaks the map into manageable chunks. I'll only be stocking those hexes which are fully contained within an atlas hex (so none of those bordering two atlas hexes). It's a bit odd, but it's a small concession to make the work more manageable.
The map is 37 hexes by 37 hexes, at a scale of 6 miles per hex. This is my preferred scale for many reasons, but mostly because I've internalized the overland travel costs by terrain from 2e at that scale (i.e., it takes one hour to travel from the center to the edge of a plains hex, two hours in a forest hex, three hours in the hills, etc.), making it very easy for me to eyeball how long it takes to get around.
Appendix B of the 1e DMG suggests using a 1-mile scale, but says other scales can work as well. I think a 1-mile scale using the DMG procedures would result in a play area that's way too dense, so I'm spreading everything out.
I'm going to start with a plains hex in the middle of the map because it's the most "vanilla" terrain type. The climate is temperate, again because it's "vanilla". It is a fun challenge to do this with an odd terrain or climate type like an arctic wasteland or a tropical island, of course, but a challenge is not what I'm looking for right now.
Instead of generating the map using the random terrain tables in Appendix B, I'm going to use Welsh Piper's Hex-Based Campaign Design (which I'm much more familiar with) to generate the terrain. I tried using the DMG's terrain tables and I simply don't like that much randomness/variance. Using the Welsh Piper method, my first hex looks like this:
Next, I'll roll on Appendix B's inhabitation table once for each of the 19 whole hexes in the atlas hex:
As the above table indicates, I have to roll on a different set of tables for the castles:
Then I have to figure out all this stuff for the large castle:
Remember when I said this post would be thorough and detailed?
The master of the castle is a 13th-level druid - definitely not what I was expecting! The PHB says this about high-level druids:
Seems weird, then, that the castle master table includes a footnote for illusionists and monks, but not druids. In any case, it sounds like this castle is instead a "building complex" in natural surroundings. Let's just call it a fortified grove (if you've played Baldur's Gate 3, it's like that).
Then I have to roll for the druid's magic items using this table:
The druid has five henchmen. They are 8th-level according to this:
Our 13th-level druid is an Archdruid, so they should have three 8th-level druid followers attending to them. I find it really impressive that the information in the PHB lines up so nicely with that presented in the DMG's appendices. Maybe the bar is too low. I do wish the DMG mentioned that druids of a certain level have a certain number of druid followers, just so I wouldn't have to go to the PHB to find out.
These druids are not considered henchmen (I think the intention was for them not to count towards a player character's maximum number of allowed henchmen), but I'm going to consider them henchmen in this case.
To determine the other two henchmen, I roll on a different character subtable:
Wow! Here, I rolled for all the henchmen together, and would probably assign magic items to the most appropriate person (the scroll to the druids or the cleric, and the best weapons and armor to the fighter, for example). Another option could be to roll individually for each henchman and have them "trade" unusable items amongst themselves, but that sounds even more tedious.
Next, I have to roll to determine the grove's garrison. I rolled 12 heavy horse (splint mail and shield, lance, long sword, and mace), 12 light horse (studded leather, light crossbow, and long sword), and 28 men-at-arms (19 with scale mail, shield, spear, and hand axe, and 9 with scale mail, heavy crossbow, and morning star).
Each unit is led by a fighter of 3rd- or 4th-level. I rolled two of each. They then each need magic items:
Lastly, because it is a "large castle", the grove would be armed with four ballistae scorpions, four light catapults, and eight oil cauldrons.
That took a long time! Don't worry - I just wanted to go through the process for the first "castle" as an example of how much rolling is needed when character-types are involved. I won't be going into that much detail again.
Of course, if I wanted to finish making this location ready for play, I would also have to roll stats for all of these leveled characters, record bonuses from Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, and the like, and determine HP, AC, THAC0, spells, and special abilities. And this is just one location!
In order to determine what type of monster dwells in the deserted tower, I have to roll on the corresponding outdoor encounter table (plains). I rolled giant owls. Cool! Now, I have to jump over to the Monster Manual:
There are two giant owls here. There are no eggs or hatchlings (which is too bad for any mercenary adventurers that might come here hoping for a 1,000 to 6,000 gold piece payout).
I roll for treasure using the Monster Manual appendix and learn that the owls have ten gems. I then have to go back to the DMG to determine the gems' base values:
I roll one with a base value of 10 gp, three base value 50 gp, two base value 100 gp, two base value 500 gp, and two base value 1,000 gp. Then I need to roll for variation:
I have to decide whether the point of the tower is the giant owls, or if there's some sort of proper dungeon contained within. The owls on their own aren’t super exciting, so I’m thinking there’s a dungeon underneath the tower too.
The deserted fortress complex would definitely need to be a proper dungeon, and is probably the tentpole dungeon in the area. Realistically, this would be the most important location to detail before starting play. That's beyond the scope of this post, so I'll leave it for now.
The thorp's population is 20-80 (2d4 x 10). I roll a 6, so 60 people live there. My rule of thumb is that 1 in 100 people is a character-type, so there's a 60% chance of a character-type in this thorp (technically it's a 1% chance per inhabitant, but I'm not going to roll 60d100). I roll 31, so there is a character-type here.
I then roll d100 to determine level, using the "tiers" from AD&D 2e. A roll of 01-65 is level 1-3, 66-85 is level 4-7, 86-95 is level 7-12, and 96+ is level 9-20. I roll 57 and then 1, so this is a 1st-level character. I go back to the character subtable in the DMG (for dungeon encounters, not stronghold rulers) and get a magic-user. A nice henchman hedge wizard for the party if they want one, and he could also provide low-level spellcasting services like identify.
This what my map looks like now:
The Archdruid's grove was a delightful surprise. It is, however, a pain in the ass to determine henchmen, garrisons, magic items, and the like. At this stage of prep, I don't necessarily have to determine those things, but if I want this area to be ready for play, I will have to figure it out before the players interact with the location, which could be during the first session. It's not like the grove is "gated" within some high-level area where the players can't go. Assuming play begins in the thorp, it's just over a day's travel to the grove.
But I'm not done with this hex yet! Now that I've determined areas of habitation, I need to figure out where the monster lairs are. I'm going to check for a random encounter in each unstocked hex. If an encounter is indicated, that will become a monster's lair.
I like the terrain type to determine the chance of an encounter (for example, encounters are more likely in the forest than on the plains). As far as I can tell, AD&D 1e doesn't account for that, but 2e does, so I'll use those rules.
I ended up with two encounters on the plains (one south of the druid's grove and one south of the deserted tower) and one in the forest (southwest of the deserted fortress).
The encounter next to the grove is within half a day's travel of it, so I consider that hex inhabited/patrolled. I need to first check for a patrol from the grove (indicated by 16+ on d20), then roll for a monster encounter on the inhabited/patrolled areas table if no patrol is indicated:
I also have to determine the mix of arms and armor used by the bandits, and if any of them are psionic:
They have treasure type A, and end up with 1,000 copper, 26 gems, 21 pieces of jewelry, a ring of three wishes (!), a +1 shield, and a +1 mace. I'm not even going to touch all those gems and jewelry for now.
I would probably tell my players that they shouldn't even try to take on these guys unless they possessed an army of their own. They could try, but I think they would die very quickly!
Here I might normally make opposed reaction rolls to determine how the druids and bandits feel about each other, but it would seem pretty weird if they were friendly, wouldn't it? I can only imagine that the bandits are engaged in a prolonged siege against the druids, trying to storm their grove and plunder its treasures. Their "important prisoners" are probably captured soldiers or other inhabitants of the grove - maybe even awakened animals!
The druids have 52 soldiers to the bandits' 127, so they are quite outnumbered, but the druids have higher-level spellcasters and a fortified position. I could see them being evenly matched, requiring some mercenary third party of outsiders to tip the balance one way or the other. I wonder who that might be...
The other two lairs are easier. I roll on the uninhabited wilderness tables and get giant eagles in the forest (the Monster Manual entry says they are only found "in places where there are great bluffs, cliffs, mesas, or mountain crags to nest on", which doesn't describe the area, but whatever) and lions on the plains.
First, the giant eagles:
I rolled 3 of them. The text says "If there are young (50%) or eggs [in their lair] they will attack any creature within 50'. There will be 1-4 young per nest, 1 nest per 2 giant eagles." It is not clear to me if this is saying that there's a 50% chance of there being young or eggs and if so there are 1-4 per nest or if there are always 1-4 per nest and it's 50/50 as to whether those are young or eggs. I'm going to read it as there's a 50% chance of there being young or eggs per nest, then a 50/50 chance of those being young or eggs.
In any case, there's just one mated pair, and their nest has no eggs or young. They have no treasure. Kind of boring! But I guess they can't all be winners.
Next, the lions:
There are eight of them - three males and five females, plus six cubs. I think the implication is that 1-4 of the five lionesses stay with the cubs to protect them, rather than there being an additional 1-4 lionesses. They don't have any treasure either, so this is also something of a nothingburger lair.
Now I think the two ruined strongholds need a bit more life. Appendix A has tables for generating the layout and contents of a dungeon, but not a theme, which is all I want right now. Instead, I'll go to 5e's DMG, whose dungeon tables I've praised in the past.
I determine that the tower was created by a lich and destroyed by a natural disaster. Now that's cool. This was once the archetypal evil wizard's tower, but some disaster brought it crumbling down. Who hates unlife, is capable of magically creating natural disasters, and lives nearby? Oh right - an Archdruid!
Now I'm thinking the lich was an enemy of the druids. They wrecked his tower with an earthquake, defeated him, and sent some giant owls to make sure no one went poking around in the tower's dungeons. The lich is probably still down there - maybe as a demilich, waiting to be reawakened.
The tower is half-sunken into a fissure in the earth, and its interior and the dungeon beneath are all jumbled up and unstable. The lions roam around the area and eat adventurers who come to the tower. The upper levels of the tower's dungeons are filled with blighted plants and zombie vermin - natural lifeforms corrupted by the lingering necrotic energy of the site - while the lower levels house what's left of the lich's magical creations - undead, constructs, conjured beings, and the like.
Next, I determine that the fortress complex was created by elves and destroyed by attacking raiders. I bet the lich had something to do with that. Perhaps this area was once more heavily forested, then the lich set up shop, starting cutting the trees down, got into a war with the elves, and destroyed them. That means the fortress complex is actually an ancient, destroyed elven ruin. That's more interesting than "deserted fortress complex".
The druids might even be the inheritors of an ancient elven tradition. The giant eagles might also be in league with the druids, protecting the ruin from plunder. The people of the nearby thorp (thorpers? thorpfolk? thorppeople?) live in the ruin's shadow, afraid to go there lest they be carried off by a huge bird or devoured by the remnants of the lich's undead army. But I bet that hedge wizard would pay some mercenary third party of outsiders to go digging around in there. I wonder who might be up for that job...
I can also begin to brainstorm random encounters:
- Druid patrol
- Bandit patrol
- Giant eagles
- Giant owls
- Undead/blights
- Lions
- Thorpers
And I can make a list of the area's important NPCs:
- Archdruid
- Bandit leader
- Lich
- Hedge wizard/whoever is in charge of the thorp
Here's what I ended up with:
For all the tedium of rolling up henchmen, bandit leaders, magic items, and gems, this was quite an engaging exercise. Gygax was a strange person, and while I can't necessarily recommend using this method for stocking a play area, it is quite impressive in its thoroughness and attention to detail in a way that Gygax's style often is.
At any rate, I much prefer this to modern D&D's style of "Here are some things that might be found in a D&D game. You decide how to integrate them into an entire world for your players to enjoy!"
Perhaps I'll do more of these in the future. I had a quite a bit of fun!