Running a hexcrawl

A hexcrawl is a procedure for running overland travel. As we discovered in part 1 of this series, it’s not a campaign in and of itself but it’s a great way to structure exploration in a sandbox-style campaign. So, now that we’ve prepared for our hexcrawl, here’s the basics of running exploration with a hexcrawl:

• Characters choose a direction and/or destination for travel
• The DM tracks their progress across the hex map
• The characters encounter keyed locations as they travel
• The DM rolls for and runs random encounters
• We embrace the creative chaos of improvised D&D

The hexes are hidden from the players

This one was surprising to me, but it works great: the players do not see the hexes. Give them a map without the hexes. This makes exploration feel more organic and less “gamey”. That means, we’re not asking the players to which hex they want to go. Instead, the players tell us either the cardinal direction they’re heading to, or the landmark they’re navigating towards.

Navigating the hex map

Here’s how the simplest version of navigating across the hex map works:

1. The players tell us which direction they want to go.
2. The characters encounter the keyed location in each hex they enter.
3. We potentially run random encounters along the way.

Let’s look at each step individually. First, the players tell us their direction. We can leave it at that. Optionally, we can ask one of the players to roll a Wisdom (Survival) check with a DC appropriate for the terrain and visibility to navigate successfully (between DC 10 for flat grassland and DC 20 for treacherous mountains or swamps). On a success, they reach the next hex, on a failure, they end up in a random adjacent hex.

Travel Speed. Characters can travel one 12-mile hex per watch (4h), and 2 hexes per day before they suffer from exhaustion.

In each hex they enter, the characters automatically find the keyed location. They decide whether they want to explore it, or if they want to move through the hex.

Along the way, we run any random encounters as indicated by our random encounter die rolls for each day.

Running random encounters

We divide each adventuring day into 6 watches, each 4 hours long. We roll a D20 for each watch to determine if any random encounters occur. On a 17-20, an encounter occurs, and on a 20, we roll twice on the encounter table.

I like to roll random encounters for the adventuring day during my prep instead of rolling it at the table. That gives me a chance to think about each encounter a little more and add campaign-specific flavor. Let’s say I roll “orcs” for an encounter. Well, that’s not very interesting. But then I can ask, who are the orcs working for? Perhaps the evil sorcerer king has mind-controlled them and sent them after the characters specifically. A random encounter doesn’t have to be just ambushing monsters (although it can from time to time). We can tie random encounters to the villains, factions and patrons of the campaign.

Players tell us where they’re going at the end of a session

This is useful for any campaign, but it’s a life-saver for a hexcrawl. Because we might have 100 or more hexes on a map, we can’t prepare details for each one. So it helps our prep immensely if we know which hexes the characters are likely to enter during the next session. Ask players for their course of action at the end of each session. Then, we can get more detailed in our prep for the relevant hexes for the next session.

Embrace the creative chaos of improv

Even if we know where the characters want to go in the next session, a hexcrawl involves more improvisation than other game procedures. Because of the number of hexes, I don’t recommend filling out details for each. That means, we might have to improvise a lot of content during the game. For me, that puts me out of my comfort zone. And that’s great. It means that I’m sometimes caught off-guard when the characters pick a different direction than expected, or when they get lost while navigating.

I might have to turn two bullet points and a map for a hex into an adventure on the fly. A hex might have the notes, “evil paladins of Tiamat” and “corrupted temple of Bahamut”, and a Dyson map attached to it. When the characters unexpectedly enter the hex, I might call for a 10-minute break, and figure out some details. Perhaps, three paladins of Tiamat are there right now, summoning a lesser avatar of Tiamat using the corrupted altar of Bahamut in one of the chamber’s. There’s a long hallway on the map. Let’s add a trap which teleports characters into another chamber from the hallway where corrupted spirits of priests of Bahamut ambush the characters.

When we resume play, I have just enough details to run a short adventure in the temple.

This approach makes for a dynamic campaign, it stretches my improv muscles… and it’s sometimes very chaotic. Embrace the creative chaos. It’s not going to be a perfectly crafted narrative, but it’s a character-focused approach to running a hexcrawl campaign.