When I was a kid, I often went on holidays on the island of Belle-Île-en-Mer (Brittany, France), situated 15 kilometers (about 9 miles) off the coast of Morbihan. The whole island basically fits in a 6-mile hex, and it takes the better part of a day to cross it on foot. Circling it takes 3 to 4 days.
Here I jot a few notes on what's cool and interesting there. I have long wanted to create some kind of module, adventure or sandbox there. When I was a kid, we often went there around the time of Halloween, and it was ripe for autumnal adventures.
So. On this tiny hex, you can find :
- 4 villages, including a fishing harbor, a military harbor with a seaside huge citadel, an ancient abbey, a secluded village... and none of them gets along,
- almost a hundred hamlets comprised of family farms (about 2d6 houses each),
- a whole system of cisterns and fortifications around the citadel, including weird sewers and buried places where no one has set foot in three or four centuries,
- a magic / witch forest,
- at least three menhirs,
- a small lake, some ponds, an orchard,
- 20+ beaches lodged in small coves between sharp cliffs, including : one with hellish waves, one with weird seashells and small bits of explosives washed ashore by a sunken WW1 ship, one with a weird marsh, one infested with jellyfish and venomous fishes, one renowned for it's lethal currents, one that's almost impossible to access unless you cross a maze of brambles and thorn-trees...
- at least one sunken 17th-century galleon with rumors of treasure and gold,
- three lighthouses and one meteo station,
- the ruins of at least three other lighthouses and semaphors, and one windmill,
- several seaside caverns and grottoes, including a giant one that's closed because the waves and rocks are too dangerous, another nicknamed the Vazen pit or the Devil's pit, and another that was used by pirates and English soldiers for smuggling and clandestine operations,
- one islet that gets cut off the island when the tide comes, where you can get trapped for 6 hours if you're not careful,
- a cove named "Borderune" (Runeside) with a rock looking like a giant bear,
- wild boars sometimes,
- all manners of strange mushrooms, in autumn there's an annual display of the weirdest, biggest, most colorful mushrooms found by people in the preceding weeks,
- traces of occupation and encampments from both Bronze Age people and Roman soldiers,
- a dozen small seaside forts, ruined or occupied, one once built and owned by a famous actress,
- a former orphanage / child prison that's full of ghosts and awful stories,
- lots of bunkers built by the Nazis and left in place along the coast,
- a tiny airport, a ranch...
Belle-Île-en-Mer means "beautiful island in the sea", which does sound a bit precious. But it's former names, most meaning the exact same thing, are all very inspiring : Vindilis in Latin, Guerveur in Breton / old French, Kalonessos in Greek...
Of course the island is exceptionally packed with stuff, and of course most of these places might be of little interest for a more epic or lengthy campaign. But it shows how much stuff you can pack in small distances such as a single traditional 6-mile hex, and Europe is certainly a great inspiration for this.
As for me, I'm definitely in the mood for making something out of this...
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