Hexcrawling!

[beerwithdragons]

What tools do you use to keep Hexcrawling simple, fast, and fun?

This post can be about:
Rulesets,
Homebrew,
Map generators,
Hex index descriptions,
How you play,
How you stay organised,
Megadungeons,
Megahexes,
West Marches,
Etc.

Thanks!

 

[JohnnFour]

I'm about to run my first hexcrawl campaign since GMing X1 Isle of Dread. So far it's pretty basic:
* Campaign Logger
* Evernote
* 5E rule set
* Hexkit mapper

 

[JochenL]

My hexcrawls have been Traveller solos so far. As they were pre-CL, I used:
* Word
* OneNote
* Traveller ruleset (mostly GURPS)
* Traveller sourcebooks (especially the campaign generation books from MgT)

 

[ELF]

I guess I'm story-oriented, so hex crawling has never felt as the thing for me, but the West Marches style of play that you mentioned sounds like an innovative way to pull it of.

If I'm going to try hexcrawling some day, perhaps I should dive straight to the deep end? Although no doubt hexcrawling would work best as a long-time effort, perhaps a weekend-long con could be an option as well? Con visitors could drop in and stay as long as they want.

Recently, I discovered a style of campaign that has been specifically designed for large amounts of players, called the “West Marches” style. It is very much a player driven style of campaign. It is the players’ job to collect the party, schedule the time, and figure out where they would like to go for each session. Not every player plays in every session, which is what allows large amounts of players to all be in the same campaign. This style of campaign would be great as a group activity, due to how it is formatted.

https://knightssemantic.wordpress.c...ches-a-style-of-dd-campaign-for-large-groups/

 

[JohnnFour]

These days I'm a fan of a hybrid that feeds into our PXE gaming framework. Sandbox + Hexcrawl + Story. That's how The Demonplague runs, and how my upcoming Barbossa campaign will operate.

 

[ELF]

These days I'm a fan of a hybrid that feeds into our PXE gaming framework.

PXE? Pardon my ignorance, but sometimes these RPG TLAs go OTT for me.

Edit: Found the explanation from RPT:

a game master who Preps smart, eXecutes sharp, and Evaluates performance for constant improvement

 

[JochenL]

I like PiXiE

 

[ELF]

I like PiXiE

That's something that a byte sprite would say.

 

[JohnnFour]

Hehe. It's our big idea of Agile GMing, whose principles are inspired be LEAN and agile programming. Campaign Logger is designed with Agile GMing in mind.

 

[psotos]

Hexcrawl can be good when you are getting burned out on DM prep. LOL

 

[ELF]

Not to mention it's easier to produce immediately usable generator content for hexcrawls than for plot-heavy, convoluted story arcs.

 

[Evil Batwolf]

I guess I'm story-oriented, so hex crawling has never felt as the thing for me.

https://knightssemantic.wordpress.c...ches-a-style-of-dd-campaign-for-large-groups/

I think, you can do hex crawling without neglecting the story. It will be just more of a group story than a GM story.

I like to call my style of play "event boxing" .

 

[ELF]

I think, you can do hex crawling without neglecting the story.

You are right - one example of that would be the fragmented story in exploration-based video games, where the player must piece the events together from bits and pieces found in the game. And this is just one way to do it.

 

[BahneGorkDK]

Im trying my hand at doing a huge Geo area as a mega dungeon / poi map. Trying to put in Gates and Keys optional path critical path Connecting pois and sruff to be u locked like game achievements. Bring back the dogtags of the scout squad that went Mia and the scout commander Who trained Them is no longer neutral. Putting up missions for Them to choose between,maybe the ones they didnt choose gets done by rival Group and now they put up a score ord in the mess hall. Some missions Will be critical path other oppertunity to increase rep with factions. Very computer gamy open world like.