Hypogeum Tables vol. 1

Folk Self portrait (Folkling)

These are tables that DM's can use to randomly generate things in the hypogeum. If you are hoping to play, don't read these! Well, maybe do. I can't stop you.

Part 1: Villages and Folk

Topology

1. Open and defensible Gerum¹. This is the most common, if you don't want to roll
   
2. Crevice or Ruin-gap
3. Amphitheater
4. Collection of Ruin-Stupa in an open or elevated Gerum
5. Clustered around a spire, tower, or pillar
6. Hanging from the ceiling, accessible by ceiling connection
7. One big ruin building
   
8. A vague sphere of under-rooms
9. Clinging to the wall (also the side rooms)
10. Inset into a hill or ziggurat, probably with spirally stairs.

 Physical Quirk

1. Mossy and overgrown
   
2. Giant mushrooms
3. Tombs
4. Houses shaped like their residents
5. Well built and cozy
6. Engraved
7. Exotic Stone
8. Crystals
9. Water Features
10. Supernaturally Dark

Social Quirk

1. Diverse 
2. Even more uniform than usual
3. Devout
4. Mercantile
5. Play a lot of War
6. Host their own adventuring party
7. Scattered Pre-modern or even modern tech
8. Scholarly
9. Colonized
   
10. Sorcery and or Relicseeking common

Cult

1. The Dark
2. The Flame
3. The Moss
4. The Mechanism
5. The Flood
6. The Orb
7. The Stone
8. The Cube
9. The Gate
10. The Song
11. Personality Cult
    
12. Fairies
    

Exports

1. Pottery, Cooking
2. Pottery, Decoration and Storage
   
3. Stonework
4. Metal Tools
5. Food, Staple
6. Food, Luxury
7. Textiles, Beastsilk
8. Textiles, Weavemoss
9. Medicines
10. Fuel
    

Food Source

1. Moss
2. Fruit Bush
3. Mushroom, Sour
4. Mushroom, Sweet
5. Mushroom, Savory
6. Herded Beasts
7. Hunted Beasts
8. Tubers
   

Folk Appearance

General:

1. Amphibious
2. Repitilian
3. Humanoid
4. Vague

 Eyes:

1. Small beads
2. large, wet puppydog eyes
3. Appropriate to their type
4. Inappropriate to their type
5. Eye stalks
6. Eye spots
   

Head:

1. Lumpy
2. Snout
3. Round
4. Crest, Neck-Frill, some other weird thing
   

Ears:

1. Tympanum
2. Large, Round
3. Large, pointy
4. Oh those are actually gills

Color:

1. Red
2. Red-Orange
3. Yellow
4. Brown-green
5. Bright green
6. Forest green
7. Aqua
8. Blue

Clothes:

1. None
2. Loincloth
3. Chlamys or cloak
4. Sari or Toga
   
5. Primitive Pants
   
6. Robe
7. Necklace
8. Plants

 

¹ a gerum is a room-like enclosure, with high walls but often without a ceiling, inside a maze or complex of other such enclosures. Like a cubical, but big and not necessarily quadrangular or perfectly aligned.

Hexcrawl Puzzle!

 

Here's a puzzle! Your party is lost. They need to get to a specific one of the hexes adjacent to their current position, but they can only move randomly to an adjacent hex on their infinite grid of hexes. What's the chance that they will reach their goal after n moves? Post your answers and reasoning in the comments!

GLoGtober 4: Exploring the Hypogeum

 

The Hypogeum is a world which consists of an underground complex (though whether there is any ground for it to be under is a matter of some debate). It can be thought of as a series of linked, immense, cathedral-like caverns, honeycombed with room-like divisions, and rooms below and in the walls of this "central" structure. Sort of like a hedge maze with basements in a roofed courtyard of an circular apartment building. If you make it to the wall, there's probably a door which can take you about three rooms deep in the wall, maybe more or less, maybe connecting to another "courtyard". These courtyards are miles across, and contain both many structures and lots of empty space.

Exploring the "overworld" traditionally (room by room) is both tedious and unnecessary. Traps are rare, and most of it is just empty space, as said before, and it is very possible (though somewhat risky) to just go above obstacles by climbing the walls (aerial predators exist and going above the walls makes you more visible to monsters in the rooms around you). Generally, its dangerous monotony dividing settlements, ruins, and other important structures, with encounters and weather. Which means it can be modeled as a wilderness!

The above is the working hexflower for the Hypogeum. I am dissatisfied with it currently, but what can you do?

Key:

👾 - Monster, or monsters

⚙️ - Puzzle, blocking a site containing (roll as though exploring)

👑 - Treasure

🏛️ - Dungeon

🛖🛖🛖 - Village, a settlement in an open-ish area, often Folk

🛖 - Solitary NPC, a master of some kind or an eccentric

🌿 - Overgrown area

⛲ - Fountain or a safe area

💧 - Flooded area 

📜 - Ruins, uninhabited non-dungeon site

⛩️ - Gate

🌁 - City, or settlement among megastructure, often Darklings

Normal (non-weighted) hexflower rules. You can backtrack to places you've been before, and you can't always explore further in a certain location. 

[Might add examples, or change things around here, but I'm a bit behind right now.]