Hexcrawl Review: Champions of ZED

In Fight On! #12, Daniel Boggs gives us the first installment of an entire RPG system called Champions of ZED. I'm not going to review the entire system, partly because it's not all available yet, but the first part just happens to be about setting up a sandbox, complete with random map generation.

The map generation is not too complicated. The biome is rolled first and spans multiple hexes; individual terrain is then rolled. Compared to the Wilderness Architect, it perhaps allows more variety (three mountain heights, forest can overlap hills and mountains,) but it's not as sensitive to adjacent terrain. Also, it's not as fast, although it's faster than the Old School Encounters or Judges Guild approach.

I rolled two of the three mountain heights and used a solid triangle to represent the taller mountains on this sample map.

Pros: All-at-once generation of some large-scale details. Some terrain types not included in others.

Cons: Not the fastest or simplest. Fewer rational relationships between hexes than DMG.