City-Centred East Asian Sandbox

Imperial Chinese cities would almost invariably be square and walled, with a street grid orientated according to North-South and East-West axes. There would be a main gate at the middle of each wall segment, with a large road leading to it.

The city itself would be quite isolated, the centre of imperial law and order amidst a vast, unruly wilderness.

starting city map

In this blog post, I will present a method to generate a sandbox centred on an imperial Chinese city.

First, generate your city per my blog post from 13 April 2012. Name the city per this other blog post. This will be the adventurer party’s base.

Second, roll 2D8 to determine the direction of the closest waterway; trace it on the map above by joining the two numbered squares. If the two rolled numbers are identical, replace the waterway with a lake.

Third, populate the map as your adventurers start exploring the region around the city. As indicated above, roll the die on Table A depending on the background colour of the square being explored:

Dark green: roll 1D4 on Table A.

Medium green: roll 1D4+1 on Table A.

Light green: roll 1D4+2 on Table A.

Yellow: roll 1D8+4 on Table A.

Table A - Master Table

Die Results

1 Fields

2 Road†

3 Orchards

4 Farms

5 Re-Roll, Table B

6 Grassland

7 Forest

8 Hill

9 Wasteland

10 Swamp/Marsh

11 Sea/Lake

12 Mountain/Peak

†If there is already a road, add one that is perpendicular to the already-existing one.

Table B - Uncommon Locations

Die Results

1 Tower/Pagoda

2 Hamlet

3 Village

4 Shrine/Temple/Monastery, Orthodox

5 Cavern/Grotto

6 Re-Roll, Table C

Table C - Special Locations

Die Results

1 Hermit/Isolated Scholar

2 Bandit Lair

3 Martial Arts School/Secret Society Headquarters

4 Shrine/Temple/Monastery, Heterodox

5 Re-Roll 1D4 on Table C, Abandoned

6 GM's Choice

A final note: This method is different from my post here where the idea was for the GM to prepare a whole region ahead of running their game. Here the idea is to randomly make up the region as the game unfolds, so as to surprise both the players and the GM.