Just to make sure I'm not leaving anyone behind here, some brief explanation. From the early days of RPGs, those running the games have been encouraged to design areas for the players to explore, frequently using random generation systems to do so. "Hexcrawling" is the overland version of this, where each hex represents a fixed distance (if sometimes a little vaguely defined, given a hexagon is not the same size from its centre all around), commonly 5 or 6 miles, though larger or smaller sizes than this are not infrequent. What are now called "Old School Rules" (OSR) RPG systems often make use of this technique, and these have seen a particular upsurge in popularity this year, following ongoing problems from the current owners of "Dungeons & Dragons".

One of the unexpectedly phenomenal successes of recent times in the OSR line has been a new RPG called "ShadowDark", which presents a very streamlined update on the OSR theme, that incorporates improvements from modern RPGs more generally. I've been very taken with the whole ShadowDark RPG conception, particularly as the Core Rules include everything needed to play the game, such as a random generation system for hexcrawls.

Last weekend, I did a couple of small test areas, to see how the system worked (hexes here are 6 miles in size), and although the system which will appear in the printed Core Rules has been tweaked a little since then, I prepared the maps in CC3+ through the week, to see how they'd look, using the 2010 Overland Hex style. These are the basic maps as generated by the random system rolls, with a list of their contents, and a separate key:

Map labelling's always tricky. There's an inevitable trade-off between clarity, precision and how much information you need to/want to present. Colour-coding the settlement names, as you've done here, is a useful trick, and maybe just using that with a map legend to say which colour means what realm might be sufficient at this smaller scale. The larger-scale text labels still seem a little too distracting, for all their faded transparency, to me, but the important thing is that you're happy with the end result, of course! And the maps DO look good!

Yes please to the Elf, Dwarf, Halfling and Orc structures, plus ruins, ships, icy elements, a volcano-mountain, variant settlement features (including for different cultures)! And after those, also perhaps:

• Magical site markers
• Battlefield marker, and a more general flag-style marker, to highlight important sites that don't fit to specific structure types.
• Oasis symbols for the deserts.
• Two more bridges at different angles to the current one - one running straight down the page, the other angled down from top left to lower right.
• I really like the Henge and Tomb hill markers, as they look good on any terrain. Another such marker with a cave mouth would be very useful.
• Some Mountain Peak symbols without the snowy tops (so grey mountains, just no white caps).
• Seeing the animal and creature comments, just the actual creature without any associated terrain would be better, as usable anywhere. Snag is, going down this route is liable to lead to requests for a lot more "resources" style markers - domesticated creatures and crops, minerals, etc.
• Some jungle-style trees, perhaps including mangroves, as well as the fruit trees Monsen mentioned.

I'll probably think of others later, but these are what're coming to mind right away. It's a wonderful style, and it would be excellent to see it expanded as far as possible in future, I think.

And thank you very much for creating it!

Having at last managed to map the exterior region beyond the Hall to its south, Dendorlig Vale, and having just discussed it on the Forum, it seemed a good idea to update the state-of-play with the Hall itself today as well. My handwritten notes currently have reached area 201, while the type-up of these has reached area 160, all of which is easier to tell now, as I'm past the point where some areas were being written and typed-up out of sequence. The map continues to be amended in minor ways, notably in the placement of the area number-labels, after these, as noted previously, were enlarged some time ago.

Today's notes cover what was partly shown in the lower right corner of the previous sample map-segment here, the places formerly occupied by The Pegasus Club and the areas adjoining it (not all of which were directly related to the Club in their previous use). This is the map segment covering the areas involved:

And these are the extracted PDF notes to go with the same areas (only):

As usual, both map and notes are subject to further amendment subsequently, as the text hasn't been fully checked still, while the project remains ongoing. Indeed part of the earlier notes posted here, which mentioned Dendorlig Vale, have been altered slightly too following the mapping of that external region, to reflect how the map actually turned out, rather than how it seemed it might earlier!

Further updates should follow, if all goes to plan.

[EDIT: And if only I'd realised this would have had the Forum-added note "28 Days Later", I might have made some post-apocalyptic comment as well 😉. Too late now though...]

If you read through the draft PDF version of my notes on Dendorlig Hall Village, part of the megadungeon/abandoned Gnome city I've been working on this year, which was added to this Forum topic on 18th Feb, you might have spotted I mentioned there a couple of places outside the Hall complex, above ground, including Dendorlig Vale. At the time, I wasn't sure if I'd be mapping that area as well, having already distracted myself far more than I'd intended away from my main focus of mapping the Errynor region in NW Alarius.

This impression wasn't helped by a couple of abortive attempts to design the map during February-March, as although I'd a hand-drawn set of ideas for the area's layout, when it came to the CC3+ mapping, I couldn't get it to look like how I wanted, in the styles I'd thought might work best. There were two main reasons for this. One was that neither of my preferred styles had a complete set of options for the structural features I wanted to add. The other was that the colour palettes involved were rather too close to the Alyssa Faden style, which I'd already used in my earlier Clack Valley map for the Atlas, and I couldn't get past the fact it felt too much like mapping the same place again; daft, of course, as it isn't, but that's what kept tripping me up.

Thus matters rested, and I'd half-decided I probably wouldn't map the Vale area after all, until I saw the brand-new E Prybylski Watercolour style in the just-released CA 196, and realised it would work very nicely for what I wanted! So here it is, still subject to amendments, given the Hall's own mapping remains in-progress only, but I am happy with the overall look now:

It's a very attractive style to my eye, and fits nicely with the somewhat bucolic view I had of the repopulated agricultural lands south of the Hall, peopled by Gnomes and Halflings, hence the names. There's a higher-res version in my Gallery as well, although even at the reduced-size for the Forum, the style seems clear enough already.

Now though, I've got another map to do a write-up for, besides Dendorlig Hall!

So this won't be going into the Atlas immediately, but, and with apologies for the belatedness of the request, @Monsen, could you reserve the Dendorlig Vale area on the Mt Dendorlig Region map in the Atlas for me, please...