New Approach to Procedural World Creation

I’ve tried to design smart (yet simple) procedural rules for world creation many times but have always been disappointed with the results. With the Realms of Solace ruleset, I think I’ve finally made a breakthrough.

All of my previous failed attempts used a similar order of operations: define realm borders, then map terrain/biomes, then add civilizations. it’s logical—make earth, make land masses, add people. But this either requires a messier ruleset than I want, or it burdens the player with making many tough decisions about realm borders without really having any context for those decisions since the realm they’re defining borders for is empty at that point. The burden is magnified at each subsequent step. Random biomes are jammed into the arbitrary borders. Civilizations are plopped down on top of that.

This time I tried something different. First I seed some terrain, planting six random seeds in a void. Then I grow these seeds logically. Then I connect the biomes that are in close proximity into large biomes. The realm blooms like a mold from the blank hex map. Civilizations are just seeds sprinkled into the void as well. Some land on biomes and take root. Some land on the void and bloom into valleys and farmlands between existing biomes, filling in gaps. 

Defining the realm borders is the final step. It’s almost backwards from all my previous designs. But this order of operations is producing more balanced realm maps than my old approach. The transitions between biomes are more organic, the civilizations feel nestled into the world instead of plopped down on top of it, and the realm borders feel natural, being just the by-product of all the growth.

Most importantly, the rule set is very simple. All of this is achieved by rolling 6d6 twice on a hex map. I'm currently applying this same idea to relationships and feature/creature mapping.