If you haven’t seen the Hexographer software before, it lets you easily create hex maps. The icons scale nicely; a random terrain generator is included as well as a terrain wizard that lets you just sketch a little bit of terrain on a blank map and it fills in the rest; you can add roads, rivers, coastlines, and text labels; use hex numbers & customize them; customize the hexes; etc.

A cropped portion of a map made with the Hexographer software.

Several new features and bug fixes have been added to the core Hexographer software:

• The random terrain generator has been significantly reworked so the resulting terrain is less random.
• The random terrain generator is explained by clicking “Help” once you’ve opened the custom random terrain settings screen by clicking the “Custom Terrain” button on the start screen of the applet.
• A number of small usability fixes have been made, such as some customization screens getting close, apply, and save buttons.

Also the “Pro” version can now be ordered. For just $5 for a 1-year license of $25 for a lifetime license, the pro version allows you to:

• Run off-line: The pro version is downloaded to your computer so you don’t need to be connected to the internet.
• Customize terrain and feature icons: Use any .png image for the terrain and feature icons. (Go to the map edit window’s “Options” menu and choose “Customize Hexes.”) Both the pro and non-pro versions allow you to change the background color of each terrain type, the sizes of terrain or feature icons, or whether to display icons or not.
• Expand an existing map: Add (or subtract) a number of hex rows or columns above, below, to the right or to the left of an existing map. (Go to the map edit window’s “Options” menu and choose “Expand/Shrink Number of Hexes.”)
• Add detailed notes to a hex: Any hex can now be described in detail with a freeform text field. Adding a note to a hex adds a small rectangular marker to the map. Clicking it will pop open the note for further editing or just to read it. (The note markers can be turned off using the map edit window’s “Show/Hide” menu and selecting/deselecting the “Notes on Map” menu item.)

Pro version maps can be read and edited by the free version of Hexographer, but the extra features are not available for further editing. (However, custom icons added using the pro version will be displayed by the free version.)

Learn more and it out here: Hexographer Overview

Often, when a party gets to back into a reasonable sized town, they want to look for a wizard’s shop (or similar) to see if there are any magic items they can trade or purchase.  Determining the shop’s inventory can be tedious, but the Magic Item Shop Random Inventory Generator makes that easy.

(Note: I’m not advocating a “MagicMart” in every city.  If that fits your game world, great, but the Inventory Generator is just as valid for a city that might have just a few mages or priests that have small shops with just a few items each.  In fact, the inventory generator may cut down on the magic in your game because the vast majority of items will not interest the players/characters.  For example, how many fighters use a pick or trident?)

The Magic Item Shop Random Inventory Generator randomly creates a magic item shop’s inventory based on your desired criteria (# minor potions, # medium potions, # major rings, # minor wondrous items, # minor weapons, etc.) using the SRD for 3.5 rules. (The results can usually be adjusted or some items dropped for other fantasy games/versions.) It is just simple Javascript, so most browsers should run it without needing any plugins. See it at: Magic Item Shop Random Inventory Generator

The generator doesn’t include the costs for each item because that may vary widely based on your game-world, the city and the owner.  Further you’ll only need to look up the costs of the items that interest a character.  A few additional features are planned, but the complete core of the program is in place.

If you haven’t seen or tried the Hexographer hex-map creation/editing software, it is a web-based program that lets you quickly and easily make maps in the style of the D&D known world maps from the 1980′s and early 1990′s.

A new feature called the “Terrain Wizard” lets you roughly sketch out your map.  For example, you know you want an ocean on one side of the map, a big mountain range running through the middle of the map, a forest here, a small desert there, etc.  So you start with a map of blank hexes (click the “Solid Terrain” button on the setup screen and make sure “Blank” is selected in the “Select Solid Terrain:” selector) and draw a line of hexes for most of these, or maybe a small circle if you want just a small patch of hexes for that terrain.  Maybe something like this:

A rough map pre-Terrain Wizard.

The terrain wizard will then fill in the remaining blank hexes with whichever non-blank terrain is closest.  To use it, go to the “Options” menu and choose “Run Terrain Wizard.” If there are two or more terrain hexes that are equally closest, the wizard will randomly pick one.  Note: if you want to have a very small area of one terrain (such as a small forest) it is more important to circle that terrain with the surrounding terrain than to make that area small.  For example, a single forest hex can lead to a large forest if all the other roughed-in terrain is far away.

The map above leads to something like this:

A filled in (post terrain wizard) map beased on the rough map below.

From there, it can be tweaked.  If a mountain range got a little two wide you can replace some of those mountain hexes.  if you need a volcano somewhere, place it where you want.  And so on. Then add features (cities, castles, etc.) and lines and text as desired.  However, if the map isn’t close to what you wanted or a feature turned out way too large, you can undo it.  To undo the terrain wizard, go back to the “Options” menu and choose “Undo/Redo Terrain Wizard.” The map will look like it did just before you ran the terrain wizard.  At this point you can tweak your rough map so that when you rerun the terrain wizard the resulting map will be closer to what you wanted.

Repeatedly clicking the “Undo/Redo Terrain Wizard” menu item will simply switch the map between how it looked when the terrain wizard was last run and the roughed map.  To rerun the terrain wizard, you need to choose “Run Terrain Wizard” again.

Although the Hexographer has always had a random terrain generator, this may be better because the map will be less random and it will be along the lines of what you wanted in the first place.  As Nazim at dragonsfoot.org posted when I first described the feature, “I never thought about it, but all the random generators were always just me looking for something to do most of the work for me. I always start by outlining the major features (big forests, coasts, mountains), and then tweak it, but I get lost in fleshing it out, the middle step. This takes care of that gruntwork.”

The hexographer also gained a few new icons: monolith, monument, pyramid, shrine, star, statue and temple.

And a few usability/UI improvements were made including:

• A “preserve ratio” checkbox next to the resize hex spinners to the bottom right of the map.
• Better toolguide help. (The text at the very bottom of the map window that changes based on what button is selected.