The

Terrain
Randomizer

Generate tactical & flavorful terrain

for RPG encounters on the fly

By José Manuel Navarro

Table of Contents
What is this? 1

Inspirations 1

Glossary 2

The Zone Generator 3

1. Area Size & 2. Number of Zones 4
3. Generate Zone Sizes 4
4. Elevation 4
5. Generate Physical Distribution 5
6. Assign Descriptors 5
Interpreting abstract descriptors 6
Zone Generation Example 7
A Simplified Version 10
The Terrain Decorator 11
Decide or Roll Number of Decorations 12
Assign Zone and Type 12
Flesh Them Out 13
Terrain Decoration Example 16

Wri�ng and layout by José Manuel Navarro.

Art by Perplexing Ruins.
All rights reserved. Reproduc�on of this work by any means without wri�en permission from
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product in these pages is not a challenge to the trademark or copyright concerned.
 What is this?
This document is a solu�on to a problem I found when
playing RPGs solo. Usually, in this kind of games we don’t
plan our encounters (or almost anything) in advance, relying
on oracles and random tables to generate the story as we
play. While there’s a plethora of available tools, there are
none that cover combat terrain. The best combats are the
ones in which the environment plays a crucial part: hindering
movement, restric�ng op�ons, adding new dangers, being a
hazard, blocking entries… nothing is more boring than
figh�ng in an empty room, where combatants are stuck in a
loop of repe��ve dice rolls un�l someone dies.

This book injects tac�cal depth with minimal player effort.

Here you’ll find:

The Zones Generator: how to split your terrain into Zones,

characterised by a descriptor and, op�onally, an eleva�on
a�ribute.

The Terrain Decorator: a method to �e the descrip�ve Zones

from the Zones Generator with the mechanics of the RPG
you’re playing.

Inspirations
The Loca�on Cra�er, The Creature Cra�er and The Adventure
Cra�er, by Word Mill Games.

Fate Adversary Toolkit, by Evil Hat.

Ironsworn Delve, by Shawn Tomkin.

Soulbound, by Cubicle 7.

1
Glossary
• Area: the whole physical space in which the encounter is
happening. Can be divided in Zones.

• Zone: a subdivision of the Area. Characterised by a

Descriptor and an Eleva�on level. Can contain
Decora�ons. Generated by the Zones Generator.

• Decora�on: anything present in a Zone that interacts with

the characters in an encounter. Generated by the Terrain
Decorator.

2
 The Zone Generator
This is an outline of the Zone Generator process:

1. Decide the Size of the encounter Area, between Small /

Medium / Large.

2. Roll to generate number of Zones depending on the Area

Size (Small: 1d3 / Medium: 1d4 / Large: 1d6).

3. Per Zone, generate its Zone Size: 1d6 Zone Size

4. (Optional) Decide or roll number of 1 Small
Elevation levels (2, 3 or 4). 2-5 Medium
6 Large
5. Generate physical distribu�on:

5.1. Per Zone, roll 2/3/4 d6 (one color per Zone), according
to their Size, to get a drop die map of the geographical
disposi�on of Zones.
5.2. (Op�onal) Assign Eleva�on to each Zone based on
dice result (either one value per Zone or one per die).
5.3. Assign descriptor to each Zone.
5.4. (Op�onal) Draw map.
On the following pages, we’ll go over each step in detail, as
well as some real examples of Areas generated using this
method.

3
1. Area Size & 2. Number of Zones
Decide if the Area in which the encounter is happening would
be described as Small, Medium or Large. This decision will
only affect the number of Zones to generate.

These values are rela�vely arbitrary: Area Size Zones

you could generate a larger area if Small 1d3
you wanted to, but managing a large
number of descriptors and Medium 1d4
Decora�ons can be cumbersome. Large 1d6
In the steps that follow, picture the Area and its Zones in your
mind and use their sizes to make narra�ve sense of the dice.
For instance, if the Area is Large but you only have one Small
Zone, why is that? An abandoned warehouse could be mostly
occupied by empty boxes, while a mountain pass might be
vast but only passable over a single small ridge.

3. Generate Zone Sizes

Generate each Zone’s size rolling 1d6 per Zone, resul�ng in
Small (1), Medium (2-5) or Large (6). This value will influence
the number of dice you roll per Zone to draw the Area map. It
should also help w�h your mental image of the Area.

4. Elevation
Thinking about encounters in 2D is a too common flaw we all
do when planning them. This step overcomes that, by
assigning an Eleva�on value to each Zone. If you want to use
it, for now, just decide (or roll) how many Eleva�on levels
there will be in the Area: 2 or 3.

Moving between Zones with an Eleva�on difference of 1

does not require an ac�on but may be difficult and impose
disadvantages in combat. If the Eleva�on difference is 2,

4
 normal movement is impossible, but a turn can be spent
climbing up or down. If you use addi�onal Eleva�on levels,
add one addi�onal turn per addi�onal Eleva�on difference
(so, moving between Zones with 3 levels of difference would
require 2 turns of climbing).

5. Generate Physical Distribution

Now comes the fun part. Grab a handful of d6 of different
colours and assign them to each rolled Zone. You’ll need 2 for
Small Zones, 3 for Medium Zones and 4 for Large Zones.

Then, take a dice roller and roll your dice together. With a
pencil, encircle the space covered by each group, which will
be the space occupied by each Zone.

If you are using Eleva�on, assign them based on the dice

result, dividing 6 between the number of levels (ex: if you were
using 3 Eleva�on levels, 1-2 would be level 1, 3-4 would be level
2 and 5-6 would be level 3). You can assign Eleva�on in two
ways: one level per Zone (taking any preferred value, such as
the le�most one) or different Eleva�on levels per Zone. It’s
up to you to decide which method to use, based on the story.
Note: If you don’t use Eleva�on, you can use the dice numbers to
measure other scenario-related things, like light level, water
depth or radia�on intensity.

6. Assign Descriptors
Lastly, we need to bring some life to the Zones you just
created. We know their physical distribu�on and their
Eleva�on, but not what they actually represent in game. We
will now generate some brief descrip�ons about each one,
that will allow us to paint a cohesive and flavourful image of
the Area in our minds. To do so we’ll employ generic
descrip�on random tables. Everyone will have their own
favourite ones, but here are some you can use if you don’t
have yours yet:

5
• Mythic Game Master Emulator’s Descrip�on tables.

• Mythic Game Master Emulator Varia�ons II Detail Check.

• Rory’s Story Cubes.

• Ironsworn Delve’s Feature Focus table.

• Mythic Magazine’s 2 and 3 Loca�on Cra�er Area

Descrip�on tables.

• Solo Adventurer’s Toolbox Verbs table.

• Tome of Adventure Design’s tables (though this one is

more specific and may require more effort to generate
something appropriate for your Area).

All of these products are amazing and your gaming

experience will improve by being familiar with them. In case
you don’t have access to any of these, a good subs�tute
would be to combine the results from these two websites:

• h�ps://www.randomlists.com/random-adverbs

• h�ps://www.randomlists.com/random-adjec�ves

Interpreting abstract descriptors

These results are very common in solo roleplaying, things
like “Roughly Strong” or “Swi�ly Ancient”. They are meant
to be applicable to every situa�on by requiring you to
interpret them using the context of your story. This
makes them harder to use than other detailed tables, but
the effort is worth it: once you’re used to them, you’ll
never run out of descrip�ons for any situa�on.

Don’t hesitate in being metaphorical or twis�ng some

words’ meanings to get a flavorful result. Feel free to
discard nonsensical results too. Interpre�ng these is a
muscle that can be trained and it’s an extremely useful
one for any solo roleplaying or GMing tasks.

6
 Zone Generation Example
Vesna the Brave, a young warrior from the village of Whitebridge,
has run inside the mysterious forested hills, in search of Inula, his
companion, and the insectoid beast that took her. A�er running
through the ruins of an ancient village, following the tracks of silk
le� by the monster, he ends up in a wide passage, surrounded by
caves, under a thick canopy. As he runs along the southern
mount, he sees, coming out of a nearby cave, the mouth of a
large grey wolf, protec�ng its cubs. With a snarl, it jumps at him!

It seems it’s combat �me for Vesna! We know we’re playing in

a hilled area, in a passage through the forest between two
mounts, full of caves. Let’s try to spice up the combat map!
Given the surroundings, we’ll use a Medium Area Size.

Decide Area Size & roll for number of Zones: Medium, 1d4
Zones = 3 Zones.

We now see how big each of these 3 Zones is:

Generate Zones Size: we roll 1d6 per Zone: 2, 6, 1. A Medium

Zone, a Large Zone and a Small Zone.

For Eleva�on, we know this

area is supposed to be hard
to traverse but, at the same
�me, Vesna would be
running through the easiest
parts. So let’s use 2 levels.

And now we generate the

Area map, rolling 3d6 for
the Medium Zone, 4d6 for
te Large Zone and 2d6 for
the Small Zone.

7
Our result here makes it easy to encircle the Zones.
Some�mes, specially when rolling with lots of dice, you will
get confusing results, like overlapping Zones and stray dice. If
this happens, it helps to establish a “dominant” Zone,
normally the largest one, which will be the basis on which to
add the rest. I will take the red Zone as the dominant one.
Our map now looks like this:

8
 Thinking about the game, Vesna was running through a
path… the black dice Zone seems perfect for that. We also
have a smaller Zone in the middle, which we don’t know
about yet, but the red Zone could be the thicker forest area,
with the wolf coming from the right side of the map. Vesna
could see it as he climbs to the small Zone, around the
topmost blue dice. With this in mind, we already have a good
idea about our Area, but we s�ll need to assign descriptors,
to get finer details. I will use my preferred method to do so,
Mythic’s Descrip�on Table:

Red Zone: Busily Aroma�c: The forest is dense here, with thick
trees and flowery vines around them. Figh�ng and moving
through here would be hard. And I wouldn’t get too close to the
vines either…

Black Zone: Mockingly So�: while the path itself is rela�vely easy
to traverse, climbing to the other Zones is surprisingly hard, as
the ground here is so� and slippery.

Blue Zone: Roughly Abnormal: the forest seems to have receded

from this part, crowned by two strange looking obelisks, carved
with black runes.

And, like this, we go from a rough descrip�on of the area, to

an oppressive, interes�ng encounter that opens several
tac�cal op�ons: Could Vesna trap the wolf in the vines? Are
Black Zone, he’s in danger of an a�ack from the high ground.
But he could also try to push the wolf there, to keep it
contained and less mobile.

Note: a bonus feature of this methodology is that it’s so simple

that changing the scale it can be applied to other tasks, like
designing a wilderness region or even the districts of a village or
town.

9
 A Simplified Version
The Zone Generator is a dedicated process, usable on the
fly but not fast enough to be applied to every dungeon’s
room. It’s meant for clima�c ba�les, intense scenes and
high points of your adventures. But what if you want to
use it in mundane combats? In those cases, it may not be
worth it to invest several minutes to create a detailed
Area. Here is a simpler way of genera�ng a tac�cal map:

1. Take two pairs of 2d6 of different colors and roll them

as in step 5.

2. Sum the numbers per Zone to get its size and use their
posi�on to define the map.

3. Generate one descriptor as in step 6, using only one

word per Zone. e.g. a result of Roughly Abnormal would
be divided in two Zones: a Rough one and an Abnormal
one.
 The Terrain Decorator
The descrip�ons and separa�ons the Zone Generator creates
already gave us ideas about how to spice up our encounters.
Most of the �me, this will be enough. If an encounter is extra
special or we want to have a more controlled approach to the
features of our Areas, it’s �me to use a new module: The
Terrain Decorator. A Decora�on is any feature added to an
Area that interacts with our RPG mechanics and adds
interes�ng choices to our encounter. Some possible examples
would be: a lava lake, a buried weapon, a stone blocking the
way or a box of TNT. Small things that don’t define the overall
characteris�cs of a Zone but add flavour and choices to it.

This is the outline of the Terrain Decorator process:

1. Decide or roll for number of Decora�ons. Complexity

op�ons: Simple (1d2), Medium (1d4), Complex (1d6).

2. Per Decora�on:

2.1. Roll 1d6 to see if it’s global (1) or assigned to a Zone

(2-6). If it’s not global, assign it randomly to one of
your Zones.
2.2. Roll for Decora�on type:
1d10 Decora�on
1-2 Hazard
3-4 Block
5-6 Distrac�on
7 Hazard & Block
8 Hazard & Distrac�on
9 Block & Distrac�on
10 Hazard, Block & Distrac�on
2.3. Flesh it out with a descrip�on and using the
Decora�on Defini�on tables.

11
Decide or Roll Number of Decorations
There is no hard rule for how many Decora�ons to use, it will
be based on your preferences and mental workload: if you’re
running a combat with tens of par�cipants, don’t add six
Decora�ons unless you know what you’re doing. On the
contrary, if you’re running a duel between your PC and an
important villain, a good number of them can spice up the
tac�cal and narra�ve op�ons. So, you have two op�ons,
either decide how many Decora�ons you will use or, if you
like randomness (as we all do), you can roll for them
depending on the level of complexity you want: simple (1d2),
medium (1d4) or complex (1d6).

Assign Zone and Type

Per Decora�on, we now have to check where to put them in
the map. To do so, roll 1d6 first. If the result is 1, this
Decora�on is a global one, either omnipresent (like a frenzied
mob) or is able to affect every Zone (like a distant sniper). If
the result is 2-6, assign that Decora�on to a Zone randomly.
Then, assign it a Type (using the table on the previous page).
There are three basic Decora�on Types:

1. Hazard: anything that deals damage or affects characters

in a harmful manner. It can be passive (thorny vines) or
ac�ve (a magic sen�nel that spits fire if you get too close).

2. Block: anything that impedes movement in any way,

either par�ally (shi�ing sands) or totally (a ruined wall).

3. Distrac�on: anything that forces combatants to pay

a�en�on to it, making them reconsider their priori�es.

There’s a 40% chance of the Decora�on you roll being more

than one Type at the same �me. Be crea�ve with these
results: they can be the same object (a Distrac�on & Block
could be a diamond wall, that could be carved for small
diamonds) or different, but close objects (a diamond on a
pedestal inside a metal cage).

12
 All three are fleshed out in more detail using the Decora�on
Defini�on tables at the end of this sec�on. While some
results may end up being nonsensical (a global block wouldn’t
allow anyone to move), feel free to disregard them, but don’t
do it too quickly: they can be interes�ng sources of surprise
in your games (why can’t anybody move? Is there an ac�ve
spell here? Can we disable it?)

Flesh Them Out

In a similar way to what we did with our Zones, now we put
the meat over the bones of the basic Decora�ons we created
in the previous sec�on. There are two ways to do so, they
can be combined or you can use just one of them. Or none! If
you already have enough informa�on to decide how the
Decora�on looks like, stop there. Suit yourself.

Generate a descrip�on

The same method we used for Zones can be applied here to

Decora�ons. A combina�on of random words and images can
go a surprisingly long way in describing a Decora�on. For this
task, the random descrip�ons from Mythic Magazine #3
would be perfect. As before, if you don’t have access to it,
feel free to use any of the other provided resources or your
favourite one.

Decora�on Defini�on tables

These tables give you addi�onal, specific details about the

different Decora�on types.

13
Potency Table Distrac�on Subtype Table

A table to decide how A table to know why your PC

important or inconvenient would stop a�acking the
your Hazards & Blocks are. enemy.

1d8 Block Hazard 1d6 Distrac�on Subtype

1-2 Cover Minor 1 Interes�ng
3-6 Difficult Standard 2 Useful
7-8 Impassable High 3 Mysterious
4 Quest-related
5 Valuable
6 NPC in distress

Temporality Table

A table that will be most useful for Hazards (and some�mes

Blocks), telling you when / how they are ac�vated.

Special Hazard Table

To add interes�ng features to your Hazards, apart from pure

damage.

1. First, roll 1d6: on a 1-2, it’s ac�ve, on a 3-6 it’s reac�ve.

2. Then, roll another d6: a Hazard will be standard (1-3,

a�ack like a weapon would), special (4-5, roll on the
table), or standard + special (6, roll on the table).

3. Use the Potency table for details on how strong the

effect is.

14
 1d10 Temporality Special Hazard

1 Permanent Ongoing damage

2 Can be ac�vated Affects movement

Mental effect (confusion,
3 Can be disabled fear…)
Physical effect (blindness,
4 Can be toggled sickness…)
Will be randomly disabled Destroys objects
5 at the end of a round
Drains resources (mana,
6 Intermi�ent exhaus�on…)
Ac�vated if something Alters the environment
7 enters its Zone (aura, cloud…)
Ac�vated if something
8 Moves
enters adjacent Zones
Hinders using a resource
Ac�vated by a special
9 (an an�magic field, strong
condi�on winds…)
10 Only acts once Roll twice

15
Terrain Decoration Example
Let’s take the example we used for the Zone Genera�on. We
had three Zones:

Red Zone: Busily Aroma�c: The forest is dense here, with thick
trees and flowery vines around them. Figh�ng and moving
through here would be hard. And I wouldn’t get too close to the
vines either…

Black Zone: Mockingly So�: while the path itself is rela�vely easy
to traverse, climbing to the other Zones is surprisingly hard, as
the ground here is so� and slippery.

Blue Zone: Roughly Abnormal: the forest seems to have receded

from this part, crowned by two strange looking obelisks, carved
with black runes.

Since I’m quite happy with the results already, I’ll just add two
Decora�ons, as I want addi�onal tac�cal op�ons.

Assign Zone and Type

1. We roll 1d6 to check if any of them are global: 3, 5. Both

are assigned to one Zone. We roll 1d6 again for each
Decora�on: 1, 2. Both are assigned to the first Zone, the
dense forest area.

2. We now roll 1d10 per Decora�on for their Type: 5, 1. A

Distrac�on and a Hazard.

Distrac�on

• Subtype, 1d6: 2. Something useful.

• Descrip�on: Excitedly Beau�ful.

16
 Hazard

• Potency: 1d8: 5. Standard damage.

• Subtype: 1d6: standard.

• Ac�vity: 1d6: 6, reac�ve.

• Temporality: 1d8: 3, can be disabled.

• Descrip�on: Loosely Harsh.

Even though they are in the same Zone, they’re not the same
Decora�on, so, let’s split their loca�on: the Distrac�on is an
ornate net, next to the ro�en corpse of a poor adventurer
that, based on its looks, tried to capture the wolf without
much success. It’s inside the cave, so Vesna would have to
distract it to access it. On the other side of the area, ge�ng
inside the forest, the Hazard is a large group of thorny vines.
They don’t look dense enough to limit moving through the
Zone, but they would possibly damage anybody that tried
doing so without thick armor. If we were using miniatures, we
would draw a large circle at the western part of the tac�cal
map to label it as a Hazard.

So Vesna is in an interes�ng situa�on: if he gets in the cave,

he may be able to get a weapon to assist him, but if he’s
pushed into the forest, he won’t only have to fight the wolf
but he’ll also be hurt by the vines.

Note: while this method is less generic

than the Zone Generator, you could
take the framework and define your
own Decora�on categories to apply it
to other tasks. For example,
Opportuni�es, Friends, Enemies and
Refuges could work as a Decora�on set
to spice up a city designed by the Zone
Generator.

17
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