Exploration Rules for Hexcrawls

Earlier this year, Arnold Kemp at GoblinPunch wrote two thought provoking articles on hexcrawls, titled, “Hexcrawls Kinda Suck” and “Okay I Fixed Hexcrawls Now.” Kemp notes (rightfully, I think) that there are some pretty severe limitations to hexcrawling. That said, they offer a fun approach to running a campaign. In the next few posts, I want to highlight my own experience tinkering with hexcrawls over the past year and offer advice on how to run one.

Last summer I decided to run a West Marches campaign so as to give my players more agency. The plan was to give them a list of rumors, let them strike out in a particular direction, and return back to town with newly acquired scars and loot at the end of each session. The idea of having a somewhat crunchy campaign in which travel and exploration choices were a meaningful part of the campaign really appealed to me. To prepare for this campaign, I consulted lots of different blogs and YouTube videos—the best of which was easily GFC’s DND video, “How to Hexcrawl.” If you are looking for a pragmatic explanation of how to hexcrawl (as opposed to a general explanation of what hexcrawling is and why one would do it), give his video a watch. His approach to hexcrawling lets his players generate their own map, as opposed to seeing the entire map at the start. While I liked this approach, letting my players become lost without knowing it was a level of complexity that I wanted to avoid. Ultimately, I did not want the hexcrawl to become the primary focus. I simply wanted to give players a greater sense of agency and mystery when pursuing quests.

Rather than show my players the hexmap all at once, I let them gradually push back the fog of war through exploration. Players began the campaign with knowledge of the six hexes surrounding their starting location. This knowledge included terrain types and any landmarks contained within. Heeding Gygax’s advice that timekeeping is essential for any campaign’s success, I created a set of rules that would allow my players to measure the amount of time it took to explore the hexmap. Fundamentally, these rules boil down to two mechanics: traveling and charting.

Traveling and Charting

Traveling

Traveling occurs when a party moves from one hex to another. Travel times are determined by a hex’s terrain. For instance, hexes containing arduous terrain like marshes or mountains take longer to travel than a plains. Players instantly discover any landmarks, such as a castle or wizard’s tower, whenever they enter a hex. It is possible for players to stumble upon a landmark meant for another quest. Travel times are calculated whenever players move into a new hex.

Parties also observe a weekly resting schedule and must check their ration supply; those who go without risk becoming weakened. (See my rations system for the full mechanic.)

Charting

Whereas traveling allows players to explore hexes through movement, charting reveals the terrain of each surrounding hex (if not already known) without moving the party from the central hex they chart from. Charting reveals any landmarks within these surrounding hexes, but it does not offer specific details about activities in these hexes. For instance, if there is broken down caravan or petroglyphs that could serve as an organic quest hook, players would not learn about them. This mechanic allows players to explore their surroundings without necessarily over-committing or leaving their current hex. The inability to see everything in the surrounding hexes prevents charting from becoming too powerful.

Charting time doesn’t always track travel time one-to-one. Elevation plays a major role. A mountain, despite being the slowest terrain to travel, is charted almost instantly, since height lets you see far beyond your own hex, while a depression’s low vantage (as in ravines or canyons) makes charting impossible altogether. Obstruction matters, too. A forest’s canopy makes it slower to survey than to walk through.

Travel and Chart Times

Similar to the travel mechanic, charting takes time. Sometimes terrain that is difficult to navigate may be easier to chart. (Note: The terrain I use are based on the guide found in AD&D’s DMG, Appendix B: Random Wilderness Terrain.) The travel and chart times for each terrain hex are as follows:

† Depressions are a subtype of terrain that uses their own fixed Travel and Chart values. The type of depression generally reflects a neighboring hex. For instance, a depression near a plain may be a ravine, a depression next to a marsh might be a lake, or a depression adjacent to a badland could be a canyon.

‡ Charting from a mountain allows players to observe two hexes in every direction, provided that an adjacent mountain hex does not obscure their direct line of sight.

Additional Rulings

I have a few additional rules to calculate the time for charting or traveling through unique hexes:

• Roads: Roads always cut travel in half for each hex. Divide by two, round up. A road running through two continuous plain hexes will take one day to traverse. Roads will not impact charting time, however.
• Rivers: Fording a river without a bridge adds 1 extra day to travel. Bridges cancel this effect and appear anywhere a road crosses a river.
• Mixed Terrain: For hexes made of two terrain types, such as Forest/Hill, take the shortest travel and longest chart cost from either terrain.
• Horses: The presence of at least one horse increases the party’s encumbrance limits. If every member of the party has a mount, travel or chart time may be reduced by 1 day once per week (to a minimum of 1 day), and the party’s chance to evade increases by 1.

If the idea of traversing a mountain in 6 days strains belief, one can simply refer to them as units or hours (though you may need to subsequently modify any other time considerations within your game). For my purposes, I value game mechanics over realism. Similarly, I know that people often debate how many miles wide a hex should be, but the size of a hex has never mattered. The important detail is the length of time. Thus, I offer no suggestion for how wide these hexes are. Do what works for you.

In my next entry, I plan to explain two additional exploration mechanics that players can use from the comfort of town.