Hex Crawl for D&D - Tips?

[Easy e]

Greetings all,

My group has been doing a number of Non-D&D games lately, and it is time to rotate back to D&D. I want to do an open-world hex crawl with no pre-gen plot hooks of BBEG. The whole idea is that this is a sandbox with no agenda from me as the GM. I want almost everything like encounters, dungeon locations, environments, etc. to be procedurally generated/improved.

We will be doing minimal miniature support on white board sketches for locations/fights.

This is a new type of campaign for me. What tips for building, running, or online, free resources for this type of game do you have? I want minimal prep and maximum ad-hoc with the key being surprise for all players involved. Even me as the GM!

Thanks for your help in advance.

[Just to Browse]

I think Justin Alexander's hexcrawl structure (https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/17308/roleplaying-games/hexcrawl) is a super thorough resource for hexcrawls. It has a ton of tools, including resolving movement, how to structure player actions & feed them into the system, and how to build the hexcrawl map.

[Tanarii]

I second that the place to start is with the Alexandrian.

But if you want a game designed for hex-crawling, you don't want D&D 5e. I recommend either Forbidden Lands by Free League, or Mutant Year Zero if you still feel like playing something different and post-apocalyptic appeals. They have hex crawl game structures, base/castle game structures, survival/encumbrance systems that work with hex crawling, and are designed to be used without a battle mat for combat.

[KorvinStarmast]

Greetings all,

My group has been doing a number of Non-D&D games lately, and it is time to rotate back to D&D. I want to do an open-world hex crawl with no pre-gen plot hooks of BBEG. The whole idea is that this is a sandbox with no agenda from me as the GM. I want almost everything like encounters, dungeon locations, environments, etc. to be procedurally generated/improved.

We will be doing minimal miniature support on white board sketches for locations/fights.

This is a new type of campaign for me. What tips for building, running, or online, free resources for this type of game do you have? I want minimal prep and maximum ad-hoc with the key being surprise for all players involved. Even me as the GM!

Thanks for your help in advance.
Xanathar's Guide to Everything has some nice random encounter tables.
DMG has some random-ish dungeon 'roll it up' tables.

[Easy e]

As much as I want to play Forbidden Lands, some of the players are insisting on D&D for this campaign.

Thanks for the links, that is useful.

[Pauly]

For hexcrawls, the best published modules by TSR were White Plume Mountain and Keep on the Borderlands. It’s forever since I played them and since we were neophytes when we did them I’m sure we screwed them up badly.
I have a friend who insists Caverns of Thracia is a great module and tries to get our group to play it.
Since they’re all old modules they should be easy to find cheap somewhere.

For something completely different my best hexcrawls were done using the Space 1889 system and I found Conkin’s World Atlas
(Link https://www.scribd.com/document/193744944/Space-1889-Conklins-Atlas-of-the-Worlds ) was useful both for running Space 1889 and as a general guide for doing other hexcrawls.

[Easy e]

I have a very old copy of White Plume Mountain, but do not see the Hexcrawl in it?

I also pulled out the old Blue Expert edition book for Dungeons and Dragons, and it has some very basic detail for "Wilderness Adventures". I am also reviewing what I can find in the DMG again.

[Spriteless]

Tresspasser is inspired by D&D, and is pay what you like. https://tundalus.itch.io/trespasser

[Beelzebub1111]

You could steal the rules from pathfinder's GM guide

Hexploration (https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=1265)


I have a very old copy of White Plume Mountain, but do not see the Hexcrawl in it? .
Maybe they mean Lost Caverns of Tsojcatnth?

[Thrudd]

Have you not checked out "Worlds Without Number" free edition PDF? It's on DriveThru RPG. This is a D&D-like system full of example tables for procedural generation of ideas for everything, from world building to challenge design. It's intended to help you prep, but you can totally use the charts to come up with off-the-cuff things in real-time. It is designed for sandbox hexcrawl style campaigns and to alleviate the prep necessary to just one session at a time.

[Pauly]

I have a very old copy of White Plume Mountain, but do not see the Hexcrawl in it?

I also pulled out the old Blue Expert edition book for Dungeons and Dragons, and it has some very basic detail for "Wilderness Adventures". I am also reviewing what I can find in the DMG again.

Sorry, WPM is a dungeon crawl, not a hex crawl. As an alternative Isle of Dread definitely was had a significant hexcrawl element to it.

[Kriegspiel]

Since The Alexandrian has already been mentioned (and for good reason!), I'll add a couple of more:

A couple of years ago Melan put together an excellent intro guide:
Hex-crawls: A Simple Guide (https://beyondfomalhaut.blogspot.com/2021/11/blog-hex-crawls-simple-guide.html)

If you want to dive even deeper, take a look at W.H. Smith from the Prismatic Wasteland. Not only is his advice gold, but he includes a list of further resources to check out FOR EACH SECTION:
Hexcrawl Checklist: Part One (https://www.prismaticwasteland.com/blog/hexcrawl-checklist-part-one)
Hexcrawl Checklist: Part Two (https://www.prismaticwasteland.com/blog/hexcrawl-checklist-part-two)


Have you not checked out "Worlds Without Number" free edition PDF? It's on DriveThru RPG. This is a D&D-like system full of example tables for procedural generation of ideas for everything, from world building to challenge design. It's intended to help you prep, but you can totally use the charts to come up with off-the-cuff things in real-time. It is designed for sandbox hexcrawl style campaigns and to alleviate the prep necessary to just one session at a time.

Seconding this. WWN is an excellent resource.

The Tome of Adventure Design (https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/396154/Tome-of-Adventure-Design-Revised) is another strong recommendation. Unfortunately it's not free. The pdf is currently $20 and it really is worth every penny.

[Easy e]

Thanks all. I am putting together the "rules" as best I can now using generators from various games and the cool resources you have provided up thread. This has been much more work than just coming up with a story-based game!

On to the next question, how do you guys run weather and environmental challenges as part of a larger hex crawl. They are not the same as monster encounters, but I still want them to be a bit more than a simple skill check to bypass? Things like avalanche dangers, crossing rivers, and blizzards?

[OACSNY97]

Hi,

Another recommendation for Worlds Without Number. I'm currently GMing a WWN game explicitly to learn how to run a (semi-)procedurally generated game. (Note- In my opinion, WWN's two biggest weaknesses are organization and a very minimal bestiary.)

Of course I had to try turning it into a ship based exploration game, which WWN somewhat supports in the Atlas of Latter Earth expansion, but not tons. In attempting to supplement it, one of the free resources I found really helpful is Weird on the Waves (https://www.birchandbat.com/weird-on-the-waves-cross-compatible/), a third party 5e supplement. I have no idea if Weird on the Waves custom monsters are well balanced with normal 5e, but chapter 6 in particular has some great GM tools for ocean adventuring.

Good luck and thanks as this thread is really helpful to me too.



Have you not checked out "Worlds Without Number" free edition PDF? It's on DriveThru RPG. This is a D&D-like system full of example tables for procedural generation of ideas for everything, from world building to challenge design. It's intended to help you prep, but you can totally use the charts to come up with off-the-cuff things in real-time. It is designed for sandbox hexcrawl style campaigns and to alleviate the prep necessary to just one session at a time.

[Pauly]

Thanks all. I am putting together the "rules" as best I can now using generators from various games and the cool resources you have provided up thread. This has been much more work than just coming up with a story-based game!

On to the next question, how do you guys run weather and environmental challenges as part of a larger hex crawl. They are not the same as monster encounters, but I still want them to be a bit more than a simple skill check to bypass? Things like avalanche dangers, crossing rivers, and blizzards?

My advice is that if survival is a thing in your campaign then do it, but if survival isn’t a thing handwave as a delay (it takes an extra d4 days to cross the hex because of [environmental problem]).

Survival becomes a chore when it isn’t a central part of the campaign and players will feel the GM is out to get them. Assume the characters are competent enough to solve the problem without making the players handle the chore. If the players want to shortcut the delay then give them the option to roleplay the problem solving to see if they can can up with a quicker/better solution.

[gbaji]

My advice is that if survival is a thing in your campaign then do it, but if survival isn’t a thing handwave as a delay (it takes an extra d4 days to cross the hex because of [environmental problem]).

Survival becomes a chore when it isn’t a central part of the campaign and players will feel the GM is out to get them. Assume the characters are competent enough to solve the problem without making the players handle the chore. If the players want to shortcut the delay then give them the option to roleplay the problem solving to see if they can can up with a quicker/better solution.

Agree 100% on this. There are few things more tedious than pulling out the old Wilderness Survival rules (or some varient thereof) and applying them. When my players are traveling some distance, we absolutely handwave that away. Assume they are stopping to get water where available, and spending some time hunting/gathering (if they're on a long trek, and maybe a simple "you have X days rations" if they're not). Have these things only affect movement rate and travel time.

Now, having said this, every once in a while, pulling the "you have to cross this desert with just what you have with you" can be a fun thing. Calculating how much food and water they can carry, whether they take animals to help carry stuff (and what kind they take), how fast they can travel (which may depend on the pack animals), and even applying incremental environmental effects, can all be fun. Very occasionally, and for a special purpose adventure section. Similar (but different in specific ways) is traveling across some arctic wasteland. But yeah, these things should only come up rarely. And they should be quite doable based on basic math handed to the players, and without any "gotcha" stuff ("Oh. You forgot to account for your animals, you all die"). What this sort of thing can do is put different priorities on the travel, and especially on combat. Suddenly, protecting the water and animals is more important than anything else, right?


I'm not a huge fan of hex crawls as a general concept. I also tend to be content with just drawing a basic map, putting stuff in various spots, and just free handing it, to to speak. I know how far they can go per day in different types of terrain. I can apply that to any map. Don't really need the hexes drawn in there. I also tend to draw out "regions" rather than hexes, which show what sorts of things are in which areas. So there's a set of orc villages and a temple in some area of the map, there will be an area around that in which orcs may be encountered. That sort of stuff.

Also, usually I have some sort of plot/adventure going anyway. The PCs have a reason to be where they are, and a direction or objective they are trying to reach. I find just filling in a hexmap with stuff, and having them randomly wander around is just as much fun (ie: not much at all) as just randomly generating encounters. Heck. I can pull out my old Source of the Nile game and generate random stuff all day long (ah... the Zambezi river flooded, and my canoes are all gone!). I just prefer not to.

Well, and I also avoid anything remotely resembling "recommended encounters per day" in my games (even in systems that use such things). I suspect that a lot of what drives hexcrawl map filling is the need to produce those encounters. I am perfectly fine with "youv'e been traveling in <direction> for X days and then...". If the players don't actually see the map, or the hexes, then they have no way to know how the encounters are generated. A simple "this kind of stuff is in this area" is sufficient, along with a simple note of where they are each day on your map. Again though, random encounters are just not something that happens a lot in my games. And more often than not, I'll just have a handful written up for "travel from X to Y", and just dole them out as I see fit (often based more on the time left in the session than anything else).

I prefer to focus on detailing the important encounters which represent significant threats/obstacles, and which the PCs will be challenged and also where they're going to actually gain the most benefit anyway. Random encounters are things on the way to the things the players want to do. Never forget that. A game that is 90% random encounter grind is not a game most players really want to play.

[Easy e]

That is how I normally do it Gbaji.

However, for this one I am consciously trying to go against type and really try to lean into the exploration pillar.

[gbaji]

That is how I normally do it Gbaji.

However, for this one I am consciously trying to go against type and really try to lean into the exploration pillar.

Yeah. Sometimes it can be fun to do a Fallout style "search for what's there" sort of thing. I do find, that to make this interesting/enjoyable for the players, you really do have to fill the map with "stuff" at a density that is likely higher than would be realistic (in most settings anyway). But sometimes, that can be rationalized just fine. Could be a particularly nasty region chock full of powerful/dangerous stuff and creatures, for example. But yeah, in most of my games, most of the time, just wandering around the wilderness "looking for something to kill/loot" isn't going to be terribly productive for the PCs.

Having said that... I've also been known, when throwing my players into some kind of dimensional travel scenario, to shamelessly steal zones from various MMORGPS and have them dropped in and have to explore/deal with what's there (obviously modded to the system). That sort of thing can benefit from a lot of the hexcrawl concepts and tools.

[Pauly]

In which case I think it may be better to run environmental difficulties as puzzles rather hazards.
I.E. the party gets a bonus for solving the puzzle such as access to an otherwise unreachable dungeon, getting from A to B faster and so on.
Think 'Speak friend and enter' or the fox/chicken/ bag of grain river crossing puzzle.

I would avoid penalising the players for failing the task

[Tanarii]

Crawls (dungeon or hex) work best when the players have a variety of possible goals to pick amongst. And hopefully variety of paths they can take to get to them. Or at least an intermediate goal of exploring/scouting to find possible new locations to treat as a later goal to achieve and/or best paths to various locations. They're all about player agency in determining their own course within a variety of options.

That's when things like encumbrance limits, survival requirements, and time limits via (known probability) random events become meaningful. They become known factors for players to consider making decisions, by adding factors to consider, helping make the choice between options meaningful.

IMO in the era of modern RPGs, it's important for the table to establish this in the first place. The players need to know that exploration/scouting is an intermediate goal unto itself, so they can establish future options. And that the focus of the game is decision making at the strategic level (so to speak) not just the tactical, and factors like encumbrance limits, survival requirements, and known probability random events (to impact time) are there to make meaningful differences between the different decisions they might make.

The reason it's important to discuss is to make sure they players will enjoy making decisions at this level and of this kind, including these particular complications affecting decisions between each option. If they won't, there's no real point. You might as well run a linear adventure and hand wave those factors. Or make the strategic level decisions be about something else. Like intrigue/factions, or different point crawl locations with easy travel between them then linear once on location.

[Pex]

I recommend this video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7z7WUShSWo