Campaign: A shipwreck has left you here on a nameless beach, without memory of where you are or why you are here, but it doesn’t matter; only survival does! The lands around you are thick and wild, with the myriad sounds of creatures and wildlife. Explore to find your destiny, fortune and, perhaps, your memory!
Homebase (Hex 0) (0100): The ship that you arrived on lies in pieces on the beach, providing enough wood to construct basic lean-to shelters, and enough cargo to assemble your equipment and supplies for exploration. The area around you has a freshwater stream and fruit trees that are not poisonous. The only signs of civilization is a strange grotesque statue at the vegetation’s border to the beach; its arms pointing to the northwest and southwest.
Three Hexes
(Hex scale is 24 miles)
Location 1 (0000): The jungle is thick, with only strange small obelisks marking a road now overgrown. The end of the road is a huge open grassland dominated by an obelisk of glassy crystal, gleaming and silent, radiating with magic. Skeletons in rotted clothing bearing rusty weapons lie around it, serving either as guardians or a warning.
Location 2 (0001): Small treehouses, filled with creatures that resemble a cross between a monkey and racoon dot the thick jungle canopy. Their hoots and cries seem to resemble a language, and their organized response to the marauding cat-humanoids show their intelligence. These marauders ride saber-toothed tigers and grab at the creatures, taking them as slaves back to the cat-humanoids camps.
Location 3 (0002): Small villages lie in cleared areas of the jungle, home to humans who speak in a strange tongue and call themselves the Dadre. They are wary of strangers, but will be willing to trade and, if understood, tell of the local surroundings and the seven villages. They proudly proclaim that their ancestors came from the cursed lost city to the north, to which they refuse to return to.
This campaign starter is based off of how I started a recent one-shot featuring the classic module X1 – Isle of Dread! I love the possibilities that X1 provides with so many options between the various factions and opportunities for adventure. Pirates! Dinosaurs! Lost Cities! Cute monkey-racoons! What’s not to love?
Every week, I will be posting “Three Hexes” – simple campaign starters to show that you don’t need to do a lot to have interesting settings for people to play in. Feel free to use these in your game, campaign or as ways to spur on your own creativity and imagination!
I’ve purposefully left a lot of detail out because these are supposed to spur on your imagination! The scale is what I would use in my own world, but if something else suits you better, then go for it. I may have the features moved about on the hexes for clarity, if they don’t suit you, move them!
Three Hexes by Michael “Chgowiz” Shorten (chgowiz@gmail.com) is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.