Ex Novo
Authors: Martin Nerurkar & Konstantinos Dimopoulos Publisher: Sharkbombs Pages: 60 Session Length: 1-3 hours Players: 1-4 (solo or cooperative)
Overview
A map-drawing game where players collaboratively generate settlements with rich histories, landmarks, and factions. Starting from a blank map, the game guides players through founding a settlement, then playing through dramatic historical events that shape its development over time.
Role in The Western Horizon
Primary Scale: Settlement Used For: Founding new settlements, establishing starting locations, creating settlement histories Key Sections: Settlements, Session Zero Engine Connection: Artisanal-to-Automatic Spectrum — primary tool for collaborative settlement collapse
Core Concepts
Settlement as Palimpsest
Settlements are layered documents where history is visible in the present. Districts, landmarks, and factions bear the marks of past events. This is the heart of Settlements.
Geographic Foundation
Terrain determines resources, defensibility, climate, and cultural attitudes. Geography isn’t decorative — it’s the reason the settlement exists. The founding resource is the first post between the Geography layer and the Settlements layer.
Factions as Living Forces
Factions with symbols, influence levels, and relationships. Power tokens make faction influence concrete and trackable. See Factions for how WH extends this with goals and clocks.
Events as Catalysts
Historical events shape the settlement. Each event has mechanical consequences that leave visible marks — and creates lore nodes (discoverable questions) alongside edges (reasons connections exist). See Settlement History.
Scale Through Detail
| WH Tier | Settlement Type | Ex Novo Age | Regions | Events |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1-4 | Village | Nestling-Budding | 6-9 | 5-10 |
| 5-10 | Town | Grown | 9-12 | 10-20 |
| 11-16 | City | Aged-Elderly | 12-18 | 20-40 |
| 17+ | Capital | Ancient | 20+ | 40+ |
Integration with Other Systems
→ Beak, Feather & Bone: Landmarks become BF&B’s unlabeled map, factions become community roles → Street Magic: Districts become neighborhoods with thematic identities → Kingdom: Factions become Kingdom roles, resources inform crossroads ← Microscope: Historic periods inform settlement age and founding ← Chronicle: Settlement-focused history creation
Practical Workflow for WH
See Settlement Workflow for the full step-by-step. In brief:
Session Zero (90-120 min, Full): Setup → Founding Phase (30 min) → Development Phase (40 min) → Detailing (20 min) → Document (10 min)
New Settlement During Campaign (30-60 min): Quick Founding → Key Events → Adventure Hooks
Background Settlement (5 min): Terrain + resource + name + 2 factions
Essential Tables Reference
All tables use 2d6:
- Terrain–Geography (p. 36)
- Terrain–Features (p. 37)
- Purpose–Location (p. 38) — the founding resource
- Purpose–Decision (p. 39) — who founded this place
- Power–Paradigm (p. 40) — first faction type
- Power–Relationship (p. 41) — second faction relationship
- Events Table (p. 42-59): 18 categories × 6 results = 108 events
Last updated: 2025-12-07 Processed from: ExNovo.pdf (2nd Edition)