TrueAlphaGamer
2022-01-22, 06:05 PM
Hi. I'm currently planning a chapter of my campaign that will be mainly focused on wilderness exploration via hexes, with a hint of horror/suspense thrown in. The problem I'm faced with is that I've never really ran or played a hexcrawl/wilderness-focused game, so I am somewhat unsure of how to structure things and I don't have much of an ear for what would be good, bad, or even viable. As such, I'm looking for any help, advice, assistance, resources, or whatever else that I can use in building this part of my game.
I'll start with a more detailed premise of what I want/have planned: the heroes (mid/late tier 2, decently optimized) have been tasked with protecting a group of teens as they head towards a festival/competition, held at a kind of wilderness resort/theme park. Naturally, things go awry, and a large number of adolescents are kidnapped/scared off from the event by a villain, sending the park into disarray, and it is clear that the party is the best (read: only) hope of making things right. The heroes must delve into the wilderness surrounding the park, where they will have to look for both the missing kids and the villain himself. The catch is that the kidnapping/terrorism wasn't the only thing the villain did, as he also cursed a number of the park's friendly construct/mascots, turning them into horrific, malformed abominations who are now running amok and will be determined to stop the heroes (yes, this is based on the Five Nights at Freddy's animatronics - more on that later). Also, there's a dragon somewhere in the mountains near the park.
My overall questions/areas where I'm seeking advice are:
How big should the map be? I am planning each hex to be around 1 mile across, with most terrain being thick forest so that normal pace would be around 1 hex/hour, but I'm unsure of how much 'map' is generally sufficient. When do things go from sufficiently grand/sprawling to overwhelming?
How much stuff should I put on the map? I want it to be both an adventure and a rescue mission, where the characters sporadically find people to rescue but also ruins to loot/interesting things to see. I don't want a scenario where players are always coming across things or stuck traveling without making any real progress. Should I just roll on tables? Use a turn/hex timer with 'quantum landmarks'?
What stuff should I put on the map? Are there any cool places that might be interesting for me to add? I wanted to, for sure, put some small ruins/dungeons/caves where things might hide out. Big enough to give shelter, but small enough not to detract from the main quest for more than a day.
The rules say that characters can travel without complications to health for 8 hours per day. They would also sleep for 8 hours per day. That leaves 8 hours for . . . what, exactly? How do I meaningfully fill that other time in a way that makes sense to me and to my players.
Are there any general pitfalls to avoid for this type of game? Any good resources to draw from?
I mentioned previously that the players will be assailed by a set of powerful monsters. This part I am a bit more confident of when it comes to using/integrating, but any feedback or ideas in this avenue would be appreciated, particularly regarding ways to accentuate the horror aspects of it.
The monsters in question are blatantly based off of the FNAF franchise. For those unfamiliar, it's primarily a series of point and click action/survival/horror games where you play as someone stuck in a room and are forced to fend off various haunted animatronic robots for an entire night. I'm not going to fool myself and try to recreate that kind of gameplay loop in 5e, especially not with players that are well into tier 2 and have swords and spells that they can use to wreck house, but I do want to transplant the aesthetics and, hopefully, some of the suspense that makes the original FNAF games scary/fun.
For this adventure, I was planning to have around 6 or 7 of these roaming, cursed animatronic enemies, each making a path through the wilderness as they hunt the players. I could go into detail if someone is interested, but suffice it to say that they are largely similar, though all have their own quirks that make them unique among the bunch. Some are more active during the day, some during the night - things like that. They would be strong, to reflect the power of the villains curse and to actually challenge the players in combat. I would also want them to have a large pool of hit points so that they fight the players in stages, running away after they take around 100 hit points of damage or so and returning the hunt after some period of cool-down.
I want to make things tense, but without having it feel annoying or detract from the growing power fantasy of mid-level d&d. Would this type of continual encounter/conflict work? Any tips on how I could improve it?
I'll start with a more detailed premise of what I want/have planned: the heroes (mid/late tier 2, decently optimized) have been tasked with protecting a group of teens as they head towards a festival/competition, held at a kind of wilderness resort/theme park. Naturally, things go awry, and a large number of adolescents are kidnapped/scared off from the event by a villain, sending the park into disarray, and it is clear that the party is the best (read: only) hope of making things right. The heroes must delve into the wilderness surrounding the park, where they will have to look for both the missing kids and the villain himself. The catch is that the kidnapping/terrorism wasn't the only thing the villain did, as he also cursed a number of the park's friendly construct/mascots, turning them into horrific, malformed abominations who are now running amok and will be determined to stop the heroes (yes, this is based on the Five Nights at Freddy's animatronics - more on that later). Also, there's a dragon somewhere in the mountains near the park.
My overall questions/areas where I'm seeking advice are:
How big should the map be? I am planning each hex to be around 1 mile across, with most terrain being thick forest so that normal pace would be around 1 hex/hour, but I'm unsure of how much 'map' is generally sufficient. When do things go from sufficiently grand/sprawling to overwhelming?
How much stuff should I put on the map? I want it to be both an adventure and a rescue mission, where the characters sporadically find people to rescue but also ruins to loot/interesting things to see. I don't want a scenario where players are always coming across things or stuck traveling without making any real progress. Should I just roll on tables? Use a turn/hex timer with 'quantum landmarks'?
What stuff should I put on the map? Are there any cool places that might be interesting for me to add? I wanted to, for sure, put some small ruins/dungeons/caves where things might hide out. Big enough to give shelter, but small enough not to detract from the main quest for more than a day.
The rules say that characters can travel without complications to health for 8 hours per day. They would also sleep for 8 hours per day. That leaves 8 hours for . . . what, exactly? How do I meaningfully fill that other time in a way that makes sense to me and to my players.
Are there any general pitfalls to avoid for this type of game? Any good resources to draw from?
I mentioned previously that the players will be assailed by a set of powerful monsters. This part I am a bit more confident of when it comes to using/integrating, but any feedback or ideas in this avenue would be appreciated, particularly regarding ways to accentuate the horror aspects of it.
The monsters in question are blatantly based off of the FNAF franchise. For those unfamiliar, it's primarily a series of point and click action/survival/horror games where you play as someone stuck in a room and are forced to fend off various haunted animatronic robots for an entire night. I'm not going to fool myself and try to recreate that kind of gameplay loop in 5e, especially not with players that are well into tier 2 and have swords and spells that they can use to wreck house, but I do want to transplant the aesthetics and, hopefully, some of the suspense that makes the original FNAF games scary/fun.
For this adventure, I was planning to have around 6 or 7 of these roaming, cursed animatronic enemies, each making a path through the wilderness as they hunt the players. I could go into detail if someone is interested, but suffice it to say that they are largely similar, though all have their own quirks that make them unique among the bunch. Some are more active during the day, some during the night - things like that. They would be strong, to reflect the power of the villains curse and to actually challenge the players in combat. I would also want them to have a large pool of hit points so that they fight the players in stages, running away after they take around 100 hit points of damage or so and returning the hunt after some period of cool-down.
I want to make things tense, but without having it feel annoying or detract from the growing power fantasy of mid-level d&d. Would this type of continual encounter/conflict work? Any tips on how I could improve it?