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| A slice of the Wilderlands |
Irony:
no longer just a diet rich in ferrous metals. Old-school gaming is now
officially old, having lasted way longer than the period of gaming it looks
back on. The line loops back on itself again; we are not just old, we are
double-old, and with age, accumulated wisdom is lost, formerly self-explanatory
ideas become objects of mystery. This constant erosion is unsurprising. You can
fight back, but never win. Still, at least we can go down swinging, and that’s better
than nothing. Today, we shall endeavour to do so by restating the idea of a
great, simple game structure that surprisingly many people fail to understand,
or pretend to fail to understand: the hex-crawl.
If
Bryce Lynch
doesn’t get it, others might be utterly lost. Perhaps
what many of us considered obvious, isn’t. Perhaps so much detail-oriented guidance
has been published that the basic, simple idea is getting lost in the
discussion. But the main issue I am seeing – something even people like Justin
Alexander have fallen into – is that
people present an idea of hex-crawls that’s much more convoluted and hard to
follow than what most of us actually need for our table. There is scattered
wisdom in those pieces, but the maximalist approach they are advocating is not practical
for most, especially beginners. The basic hex-crawl, in comparison, is
dirt simple to understand, design, and run. Hence, this post. A simple, concise
guide can explain the essentials – and if you would like, you can later expand
your own procedures in a modular fashion.
* * *
Why
run a hex-crawl?
Hex-crawls
are a great way to run games based on wilderness exploration. Their main
strength lies in turning a wilderness map into something you can describe and
play with ease. Hex-crawls offer a good value for the effort that goes into
creating them. Even a relatively small wilderness area described as a hex-crawl
can be used and re-used several times. You can easily expand them both outwards
(describing more of the map using this method) and inwards (adding more
features and deeper detail). Hex-crawls can be developed piecemeal, and they
are easy to scale to the interests of your adventuring party.
* * *
The
basic principle
You
might remember a common way to describe RPGs to outsiders: “This game is all in
your imagination, played without a game board.” Hex-crawling is a lot like that
game, but with a game board added to it. This board shall consist of two map
sheets with numbered hexes. One of the maps is for the Gamemaster, and like your
usual dungeon map, it is marked with terrain features, and an encounter key.
Unlike dungeons, the key is not numbered sequentially, but by hex coordinates:
a certain number of hexes may have varied features in them, while some are
“empty”, consisting only of terrain. The second map is the one the players
actually see: while it conforms to the first in most respects, this one is much
more sparse, usually showing coastal outlines, a few major geographic features,
and maybe a section of the “known” lands. The rest is left blank for later
discovery.
Over
the course of play, moving around and exploring the wilderness map, filling in
its blanks, and coming across the keyed encounters shall be the focus of the
game. The exploration process may be complicated by random encounters, navigation
hazards, the depletion of food and equipment, and other complications like bad
weather, or events keyed to the passage of time. Like dungeon adventures, hex-crawls
are a combination of keyed encounters, random events arising from game
procedures, and emergent gameplay created by GM–player interaction. A good
hex-crawl is a lot like a good dungeon – reasonably open-ended, challenging,
accommodating of player decisions, yet not overwhelming at any single decision
point, since every given hex allows only six directions of travel from it.
* * *
Constructing
the GM map
 |
| The Central Marches |
Many
game world focus on the big picture, the world at large. In a hex-crawl
setting, we will be doing the exact opposite, by describing the micro-world.
Our main concern is not the extent and ancient history of empires or the
cosmology of the gods, but the local lord acting as an agent of the distant
imperial seat, or the secretive monastery hidden in the woodlands. It may be
useful to have a very general framework for the sake of style and internal
consistency, but what really MATTERS is local detail and variety. The scale of
the maps itself should reflect this. We are not making continents, we are
making provinces or baronies. Many hex-crawl games use the six-mile hex (which
became the default for Judges Guild’s Wilderlands setting), which is
really fine-grain, and lets characters move through a lot of hexes in a single
game session. I usually go with twelve miles (or around 20 kilometres). Greyhawk’s
30 miles per hex, as seen on the classic Darlene Pekul maps, is generally too
large for the details we want – Greyhawk is definitely a big-picture place.
Accordingly,
map a small corner of the larger world. A starting campaign can easily exist on
a stretch of land measuring 12×12 six-mile hexes. Instead of large expanses of
homogenous terrain, I would suggest making things varied in terms of both
topography and land cover. Starting out with a random-generated map and adjusting
it a bit to make the geography slightly more realistic works surprisingly well
– there is a random terrain filling method in the AD&D DMG (Appendix B),
and Hexographer comes
with a default random generator, which I used for the example map here. You
will notice a few features which tend to be desirable:
- a single terrain type tends to cover 8-10
hexes, and rarely more: this makes the land mass varied and distinct;
- there is a balance of easily navigable,
challenging, and generally impassable terrain: choosing where and how to travel
becomes an important player choice;
- water is used prominently, forming seas, a
lake, and river basins;
- prominent features – castles, dungeons,
settlements and temples – are distributed logically, but sparsely: travel is a
necessity in the setting;
- roads might link the most important
centres of civilisation, but adventure lies off-road: we have a proverbial
“points of light setting”, with relatively safe areas along the roads, and dangerous
wilderness beyond them.
Not
every map has to follow a similar structure, but this combination should make
for a good mini-sandbox. If you would like to construct a larger region, Volume
4 of Seven Voyages of
Zylarthen (on which more in
a later post) describes a semi-random Hexographer-based method that
shall create an entire campaign’s worth of terrain.
* * *
Stocking
the GM map
This
is the meat of the hex-crawl. Interesting locations, lairs, and the more complex
sort of encounters can be seeded across the hex map, waiting for the players to
come across them during their explorations. After placing a few important
locations by hand, it is most useful to turn to a random generation method.
Establish hex locations via this method:
- roll 2d6 for each 12-mile hex (or 2d12 for
each 6-mile hex) with two different-coloured dice for each hex (this can take
some time);
- a “1” on the dice indicates either a ruin
(usually marked with an “x”) or a lair (usually marked with an “L” or “·”) –
mark these on the map;
- for hexes with mixed terrain (e.g. forests
meeting mountains), check both terrain types;
- you may want to re-check hexes which have
a feature to see if they may have a double one.
 |
The Central Marches, with
locales of interest |
The
exact content of the hexes is written into the hex key, where entries are
identified by the four-number coordinates. This is similar to a dungeon key in
scope and detail, focusing on the essential and leaving the rest to improvisation.
Like with dungeons, random idea generation tables can be useful for stocking a
wilderness, at least beyond a range of initial entries which establish the mood
and challenges of the place. Once you have a general idea for the region, the
details shall fall into their place. For example, using our previous map, we
may begin our hex key like this (stats and most treasure values not included):
0306
ANTZUN, village of 100 goblins eking out a miserable existence, and paying
tribute to the orcs of Castle Gardak (0203). Some of them know a way through
the mountains, and may be hired as guides, but 1:6 to be treacherous.
0310
FELL, village of 100 men, regularly suffering hobgoblin raids from the west
(0109). Foreman Valumbe the Provider (Fighter 4) throws miscreants and
evildoers into a dry well to starve, but some of the dead come back from the
walls to claim the living.
0311
Fallen palisades surround a crumbling villa, inhabited by 35 bandits. Their
companions and leader, Felso the Humble, have been captured by Valumbe the
Provider (0310), and are in need of rescuing. 1200 sp, 100 gp.
0406
Lair of 60 brigands raiding the road from their temporary camp. They are led by
Eilakolin the Merry (Fighter 8, treasure map) and his lieutenants, Priago the
Fighter (Ftr 4) and Ethy the Quick (Ftr 4). They have buried their coins at a
secret location, and currently have 1000sp, and a box of gems from a captured
merchant (10 gp, 2*50 gp, 10*100 gp, 4*500 gp, 2*1000 gp).
(and
so on, see the end of the post for the starting area)
The
hex-crawl, of course, is not the complete campaign, but a component of it. Add
a starter dungeon (and start thinking about one or two more – they don’t have
to be large affairs), a few rival power centres and organisations, and you have
a full landscape of adventure (see this
post for a general idea). A hex-crawl is a great place to stick adventures
written by other people, too, and it is one of the frameworks where mini-dungeons,
even the better one-page dungeons can find a good home.
* * *
Managing
the crawl
Once
we have the hex map, the key, and a few places with more detail, the campaign
is ready to play. To start the crawl, set the players down on their version of
the map, which can be as sparse or as detailed as you wish (the less detailed
it is, the stronger the sense of discovery, but the more time will be spent
with mapping). At this point, it is important to establish some basic context –
where they are, what they have known or heard of the surrounding territory (a
rumour each player may be a good way to accomplish this), and approximately where
have they heard of capital A Adventure. We can begin!
Much
of the hex-crawls occurs through simple procedures. Here are the essentials:
Descriptions:
describe
what the party sees in the surrounding hexes in a brief way. This should
include terrain, visible landmarks, and maybe a little detail. For example,
using our sample map, and starting from the castle home base at 0608, the GM
could begin thus: “Day one breaks as you ride out through the gates of
Krakhal. It is still misty, but you can see the roads meeting here: the Winding
Way crossing the river to the NW and going through farmlands towards the
mountains where stands the tower of Breezehall to a day’s journey; the other direction
heading SE and disappearing in wooded hills. A more narrow cart road crosses
the river to the W, then heads SW through grassland. In this direction lies
Fell, a village where you have heard of troubles with raiding humanoids and brigands.
To the N and NE stretch thick forests, and to the S, you see tall peaks.”
From here on, the descriptions can be even shorter: “You cross the
grasslands into 0509, along the river running SW. NW lie woods, SW and S are
flat grasslands, and SE are the mountains. The road continues SW.”
 |
| Here be giants |
Movement:
let
the players declare the directions they are moving, and calculate how much
terrain they can cross at their movement rate. As a rule of thumb, 4 6-mile hexes
of terrain (plains, wastelands, coast), 2 hex of medium terrain (forest, hills),
and 1 hex of hard terrain (mountains, swamp) can be covered on foot, or 6/4/1 while
mounted. For 12-mile hexes, just halve this rate. For mixed terrain (likely), it
is sensible to divide the day into a morning and afternoon stretch and see how
much distance the characters cover. There are movement systems which use “movement
point costs” to enter a hex of a specific terrain type, which are more
abstract, but a bit easier to calculate with.(Getting lost): This is
a probability used in various A/D&D editions to see if the party veers off
course or becomes lost while moving in the wilderness. It is not a rule we are actively
using, but it adds a layer of uncertainty to exploration, and unless the party
is moving along the roads, it may lead them to unexpected places of interest!
Encounters: the
characters shall come across the fixed encounters on the hex key. There is also
a good reason to use random encounter charts to vary things a bit. Generally,
roll random encounters once per two six-mile hexes travelled with a 1:6
probability, or twice per day and thrice per night if camping (this can be
reduced if the characters have discovered or created a safe shelter). Not all
encounters will be fights to the death: hunting animals may avoid the party,
while intelligent denizens may want to trade, negotiate, ask for directions, or
provide the same… if the reaction checks are good enough.
Supplies: assume one ration per
day of travel, and separate water rations where needed. Hunting and foraging may
be a way to find food on the way. For a simple system, roll 1d6, with a +1 for
skilled outdoorsmen and +2 for rangers and druids, and -1 for frood-sparse regions
like high mountains. Food will be found on rolls of 4+, with an extra ration
per point over the threshold.
Weather: this is simple and
fun for situational variety. Just roll 1d6 per day to establish the dominant
weather, from 1 (sunny, clear) to 6 (heavy rains, strong winds, heavy fog), add
a situational modifier or two if needed (e.g. by terrain or season). If daily
rolls make the weather too “swingy”, assume that stretches of weather will last
1d3 days or even more, or that changes will be in increments of one point at a
time.
This
is (more or less) the simple system we are using at our table. It is not completely
realistic, but it is in keeping with the complexity of dungeon procedures, and
makes for a rewarding procedural package which does not slow down play, works
out fine, and can be messed with from time to time to shake things up a bit.
* * *
Details
which are a matter of taste (but here is my opinion anyway)
Should
a terrain type fill a whole hex, or not?
My
hex maps are usually more organic, and the hex grid is simply overlaid on a map.
This is also the way Judges Guild did things. Hexographer (which I used to
illustrate this post) fills every hex with a discrete terrain type. This is
okay, too, and slightly easier to adjudicate.
Some
people suggest the hex map should be the GM’s tool only, and this “layer”
should be hidden from the players. Which one should I pick?
This
is the approach advocated by Justin
Alexander for reasons of deeper immersion. For ease of use
reasons, I would personally recommend the exact opposite, the use of identical
player/GM maps with a different level of detail, like in the original Wilderlands
products. This translates wilderness navigation into a game board you navigate
and gradually fill in with terrain and points of interest. It is a game, and
there is no harm in revealing most of its rules, including the hex numbers. In our
campaigns, I rationalise the latter with the assumption that hex numbers
represent astronomical navigation schemes, or (in science-fantasy campaigns) data
from orbital GPS systems.
Do
I have to create an entire map’s worth of content before beginning a campaign?
This
actually matters! There is absolutely no need to create a whole setting in one
go. Create a kay for a relatively small area, then expand outwards as it
becomes necessary. Everything you need to know beyond the initial area can be
handled as a simple rumour. “North of the Mountains of Fum lies a ruined city
inhabited by ghouls. The Crown of Power lies underneath!” or “Monkeys
are a delicacy in Katang, but sacred in Pand; and the two towns are almost at
war over this matter.” – this much would be sufficient.
How
detailed should hex entries be?
For
personal consumption, as detailed as your average dungeon room. Some, like
major towns and power centres may deserve a little bit more, maybe a
bullet-point list. But keeping things brief and versatile is usually the for
the best.
What
if I have a map, but they don’t start exploring?
A
handful of rumours with promises of adventure and treasure can be enough to get
the characters going. It is also advisable to place adventure sites in
out-of-the way corners of the world, so discovering their exact location
requires travel through strange lands. Various quests and missions can also
take characters to these fa-flung corners of the milieu.
What
if they never go off the road system?
Many
such cases! That’s why there should only be few roads, and many places the
company has to visit should lie beyond them. This is best caught in the
planning phase.
Since
hexes cover a lot of territory, shouldn’t adventurers have a chance to miss
keyed features?
This
has always struck me as bad advice, since the point of hex-crawling is to find
cool, interesting stuff, not walk by it. It is in both the player’s and
GM’s interest to bring these encounters into play while travelling through the
wilderness. You could rationalise it with the understanding that a given hex
probably has multiple interesting features, and your party will find the one
being described in the key. But generally, unless a feature is deliberately
hidden, it is best to let the characters find it. You can always add secondary
and tertiary sites later, if needed, although it is also vital to expand
horizontally, and encourage players to seek out new lands and sights.
What
about three-hex/seven-hex/hex-flower wildernesses?
Nah.
*
* *
The Central Marches: A
sample starting area
This
is the slice of the region you might describe before the first session. You
will note that there are 19 locations being described, including a few hubs of
civilisation (the "points of light", with simple adventure hooks),
seven ruins, and 6 monster lairs. You can place a larger starting dungeon
somewhere close to the centre (this could be beneath the strange garden at 0407,
two hexes from KRAKHALL), and a smattering of smaller ones all around: perhaps
beneath the well in FELL (0310), the
buried passage in the ancient shrine (0506), the secret treasure cave (0610), the eccentrics' tower basement (0707), the Pavilion of
Engadrok (0710), and the emperor's undersea villa (0808). If this sounds too
much, that's because it is: you do not need to do it all at once, and many of
the possibilities may never enter play (they are well hidden, the entrance is
buried or enchanted, etc.).
It
is also likely that the campaign will move beyond the initial area in some
direction. Perhaps the players will want to visit the city at 1108, follow up
on the humanoid raids originating from the advance hobgoblin camp to the west
(0109), or travel north beyond the mountains and see what lies in that
direction. Do not waste too much work: it does not hurt to be a little lazy in
a hex-crawl campaign. If something is particularly important for you, link it
to the players with multiple rumours and adventure hooks, and they will likely
find their way there.
Once
you have the ideas for the hex-crawls, connect, leverage and reuse them: let
the brigands at 0406 start harassing merchants along the road, or the hobgoblins
send a shipment of captives to the orcs in Castle Gardak (0203). Perhaps the greedy
merchants ruling the city want to depose the incompetent Lord Fumme in WOOLBERG
(0810) by kidnapping his daughter. A trail of investigation leads to the lawless
village of WYRHOLM (0611), and at that place, the characters hear of a
treasure-hunting expedition across the mountains (0610). These links and leads
make the setting alive and interconnected, and will soon serve as an organic
substitute to the rumour table. The campaign will be, to an extent,
self-sustaining within its geographic and thematic boundaries.
 |
The Central Marches:
Initial Scope |
0305
A few walls and a collapsed tower remain from a wizard’s mountain stronghold,
now inhabited by 4 griffons. In their nest, they have collected 3000 sp, an efreet
bottle, and Helmbrand, a Neutral sword +1.0306
ANTZUN, village of 100 goblins eking out a miserable existence, and paying
tribute to the orcs of Castle Gardak (0203). Some of them know a way through
the mountains, and may be hired as guides, but 1:6 to be treacherous.
0310
FELL, village of 100 men, regularly suffering hobgoblin raids from the west
(0109). Foreman Valumbe the Provider (Fighter 4) throws miscreants and
evildoers into a dry well to starve, but some of the dead come back from the
walls to claim the living.
0311
Fallen palisades surround a crumbling villa, inhabited by 35 bandits. Their
companions and leader, Felso the Humble, have been captured by Valumbe the
Provider (0310), and are in need of rescuing. 1200 sp, 100 gp.
0406
Lair of 60 brigands raiding the road from their temporary camp. They are led by
Eilakolin the Merry (Fighter 8, treasure map) and his lieutenants, Priago the
Fighter (Ftr 4) and Ethy the Quick (Ftr 4). They have buried their coins at a
secret location, and currently have 1000sp, and a box of gems from a captured
merchant (10 gp, 2*50 gp, 10*100 gp, 4*500 gp, 2*1000 gp).
0407
35 gnolls are picking through the ruins of an extravagant garden. Brass idols
of various animals on top of standing columns have magical effects: bull – save
vs. spell or berserk rage, serpent – offers healing fruit bearing strange
curse, wolf – save vs. polymorph or contract lycanthropy, swan – gives feather
to most beautiful character, touch heals 1d6 Hp, bear – save vs. spell or sleep
1d6 days, pelican – gives key in exchange for a fish. Buried under a large pile
of rubble is the villa of a magic-user, now a repository of mirages. [Ideal for
a mini-dungeon]
0409
Crude rock monuments of a preshistoric people stand painted by the grassland
road. 18 prize horses (2d6*100 gp each) are grazing nearby, belonging to Bobend
the Bastard (Fighter 7), who lives nearby in a filthy tent with 5 wives and 9
mean, unruly children.
0505
BREEZEHALL, tower of the Lord Yverr the Silent (Ftr 9), served by 90
men-at-arms patrolling the mountain road, and Dalco the Orphaned (M-U 5), the
descendant of a forgotten king. Lord Yverr is obsessed with five stone thrones
on a nearby mountaintop, each struck through with a sword that shall not budge.
He is welcoming to guests demonstrating nobility, but has been known to capture
and fleece the soft and squeamish.
0506
6 brown bears live in a cave near the mountain road, and have 1:3 to venture
out to prey on travellers who do not outnumber them 2:1. The cave is decorated
with ancient cave paintings, and ends at a buried passage between two crude
statues of snarling bears.
0507
There are giant trees near the road with 8 hippogriffs lairing in the branches.
They are only 1:12 to venture out for men (1d4+4 coming), but horseflesh has
1:6 to draw all eight. The giant nests are strewn with bones, and a dagger
+1, 3 vs. orcs and goblins is entangled in the branches.
0511
2 fire-breathing giant lizards, particularly colourful in their resplendent
hide (worth 800 and 3000 gp intact), enjoy the sun on flat rocks. Their lair, a
crack between the enormous boulders, is the source of a spring, overgrown with
healing herbs (2d6 doses, +1 to nighttime Hp recovery if prepared as a tea).
0608
KRAKHALL, castle of the Lord Sinds the Righteous (Ftr 9), 90 men-at-arms, and 3
champions (Ftr 7) who serve him enthusiastically. Lord Sinds is the mortal
enemy of Lord Fumme the Unlucky (0810), and even his foe’s name can send him
into an uncontrollable rage. The moat has been populated with killer frogs as a
form of defence, but this plan has not been thought through, and the beasts
have become pests in the countryside.
0609
18 zombies wearing the garments of pilgrims shamble in an endless circular
procession on a road that terminates shortly afterwards.
0610
Tajah the She-Wolf (Thf 8), noted robber, has come here with a retinue of 30
fighting men and 10 labourers to seek a cavern outlined on a treasure map,
found somewhere near the lake coast. Their camp is overrun by small monkeys
which prey on the supplies and gradually strip away their equipment.
0611
WYRHOLM, village of 300 men who resent taxation and outside interference, and
have become a nest of outlaws and bandits, including armsmen from Woolberg
(0810), and good but unscrupulous forest guides. Stolliviss the Eternal (Clr 2)
is trying to convert the people to the worship of demonism. The Hack Rack
Tavern caters to loggers and fighting men, featuring a bear pit; proprietor
Klaint the Incomprehensible is a Thieves Guild man who buys and sells valuables
“no questions asked”.
0707
A tower, once the retreat of rich eccentrics for their debauchery, now lies in
a decrepit state, inhabited by Klaro the Tall (Fighter 6) and 70 bandits. The
weird things the former occupants were into are safely locked down in the
basement, while Klaro has converted the top room into a personal weapon and
armour collection.
0710
The Pavilion of Engadrok lies in the middle of Lake Oopag, where a magic door
leads to a fantastic maze created by a djinn, and the prison of an enchanted
princess.
0808
The terraces of a fancy, submerged villa complex can be see beneath the waves
here, the former coastal estate of Emperor Nobendses. 200 mermen inhabit the
structure, and guard an undersea dungeon with the emperor’s treasures.
0810
WOOLBERG, castle of the Lord Fumme the Unlucky (Ftr 9), 150 men-at-arms, and
Father Hsitisolodie (Clr 5). Lord Fumme’s incompetence and bad luck have
brought him low in the eyes of the court and his neighbours, and placed him
near ruin. The garrison is ill kept, and the men are often away on private
ventures involving brigandage in Wyrholm (0611). Father Hsitisolodie is eager
to have Lord Fumme’s daughter, Abigh the Mad married off to a worthy suitor to
preserve an important prophecy.
