Hexplorations: Church

We’re bringing back another old feature of ours: Hexplorations! These are charts for details of things you may encounter in a hex crawl or simply developing your world. To use this chart simply roll for each column or look at the options for inspiration or use a combination of the two approaches.

Church by The Forge Studios/Maciej Zagorski
Church by The Forge Studios/Maciej Zagorski

For example, you may roll 4-2-2-6-5 resulting in an old but well maintained church that has one medium building. It has only one dedicated priest for over 1000 congregants. The church is built in a specific location for a specific reason.  The chart has a couple of possible reasons, but you should certainly tailor this result to fit your campaign and the location of the church.

Sometimes you’ll get incongruous results, but explaining those can often be very fun & interesting.  For the example above we may wonder: If the church is relatively small, how could it have thousands of worshippers?  Perhaps this is where the church began and they hold services here on special occasions for small groups, but they later built a larger building or compound nearby.  Or maybe there are services held all day every day for 20-50 people at a time.  Another way to explain the difference is the church honors nature and holds outside services.  Or there is a magical extraplanar area to hold large services.

Hopefully these charts and ideas can be the basis of most of the key details to any church the PCs may find in your game. Customize the results to fit your setting and which groups may be nearby as needed and as inspiration strikes!

d6 Age/Condition Size Staff Congregation Secret
1 Newly built Simple, one room worship area Traveling priest who comes 1x/week (visits several churches) Small 3d6 (this is a small village, there was a recent rift, etc.) The church’s leader or a staff member is a divine messenger of the religion.
2 Recent, but like new Medium building with a worship area and a couple of offices One dedicated priest who handles everything he or she can Medium (5d6x10) and shrinking The church’s leader is a charlatan, attempting to con the congregation.
3 Recent, but not well maintained Large building with a worship area, meeting room, a few offices and a few classrooms One priest and an assistant Medium (5d6x10) and growing The church has a secret crypt below it.
4 Old, but well maintained Two connected buildings: one is a large worship hall and classrooms, the other has an outreach area and offices Two very capable priests Large (3d6x100) but rapidly declining The church holds an important clue to find a religious artifact.
5 Old, ruined but being rebuilt Three or four buildings packed tightly together, perhaps add-ons of each other for a worship hall, offices, classrooms, and outreach center Lead priest and 1d6+1 staff & acolytes combined Large (3d6x100) and rapidly growing The church is built on a specific location.  This hallowed ground may keep a necrotic beast contained beneath it, or the church’s divine energy joins with others to protect an area, etc.
6 Ancient, but restored Large compound with several buildings: worship hall, offices, classrooms, and outreach center Lead priest, 1d6+1 acolytes, 1d6 staff (cleaners, bookkeeper, etc.) Very large (10d6x100) The church is a front for an evil group.  Who are the posers? One staff member and a few parishioners? All the staff but no congregants? Just a faction of congregants?  Everyone?