Category: Hexcrawl

  • Procedurally Generating Purposeful Roads on the Fly

    Over the past year, I’ve been inspired to try solo play after watching Daniel Norton’s solo campaign, which uses his homebrew Unchained. Initially, I tried to do everything identical to him as I gathered my bearings—this included purchasing a copy Outdoor Survival to use its map. In recent months, however, I’ve wanted to try running…

  • Motivating Players to Hexcrawl with Maps Found as Treasure

    Players encounter many types of maps in tabletop RPGs. There are maps for hex crawling, dungeon crawling, and navigating towns. There are maps for finding treasure and maps found as treasure. Maps found as treasure are especially common in Dungeon Crawl Classics funnels. For instance, players can find a treasure map in Harley Stroh’s Sailors…

  • Exploration Rules for Hexcrawls, Part 2

    In my previous post, I highlighted rules I homebrewed for hexcrawls. Apart from a desire to tinker with game design, I wanted to offer my players a means of making meaningful travel choices without showing them the complete map. To reveal the map, players need to contend with a fog of war mechanic, which they…

  • Exploration Rules for Hexcrawls, Part 1

    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…