#Hexcrawl

[macguffinandco]

We're thrilled to see @ratwavegamehouse fight their way to funding Transgender Deathmatch Legend II with ripped-up knuckles and bloody lips. If you haven't heard of it, TDL2 is a badmouthed, hexcrawling, aggressively queer card-based beat-em-up TTRPG about trans wrestlers in the city of Slamchester. And boy aren't those some familiar names on a future stretch goal. :)

Go pile-drive this hyperviolent queer hexcrawl into the concrete with even more support! The next goal funds a zine of kickass playable characters written by some very talented friends, and Jonny and Sasha get to add two freaks to the roster at the £4500 stretch goal. Cheers and mayhem!

[franciscolemos]

Some OSR style hexes I made just for fun.

[ostrichmonkey-games]

First draft of the little practice micro-region Riverlands hexcrawl! The goal with this exercise was literally just to practice making and keying hexes. Thinking about the "level design" of it all, so to speak. No intention of using any of this for the final versions, but bits and pieces could pop up again!

I think I'll polish it up a little bit and toss it into the downloads of the current Riverlands zine, as a little bonus freebie.

And here's the transcription:

Prototype Hex-set

Region overive

Encounter table

Minor settlement

Biomes: tangle and minor waterway

Immediate landmarks

Fogswood: slightly haunted village

Abandoned Shrine: overgrown and untended

Marshfields: dense tangle, hard to navigate in anything but small crafts

The Trudge: slow moving waterway, clogged with plant growth, fish, and freshwater crustaceans

F1

Terrain: Marshland and minor waterway

The Trudge: Minor waterway. A slow moving, sluggish stream that meanders through the dense marshes. Overgrown reeds and other vegetation make travel by anything except small boats take twice as long. [F1, F2, F4, F5]

Trudge Encountres

Noxious algae bloom. Poisons the water the next 1/4 day stretch. May be carefully harvested and prepared for medicinal properties.

Wishmonger set up on an anchored flat-bottomed punt.

Angry swarm of marsh bees.

Riverside shrine to a local god of: 1. Rain. 2. Herons. 3. Travel. 4. Fishing. 5. Brew. 6. Floods.

Traderfolk clearly from foreign lands, their boat is entangled in a rotten mat of vegetation.

Hitchhiker covered in talismans and good luck charms. Secretly a traveling spy for the Kingfigher's Court.

Note: all of the above is in addition to the Marsh/Tangle encounters.

F1

Hidden: Overgrown wreck of a barge. Skeletal remains burried in silt and reeds. Sealed sarcophagus with talismans plastered across the top.

What's inside? This deadfall god-wood hewn coffin is miraculously sealed and watertight. Braking the seals requires a talented breaker or enough foolish drive. It is difficult, but not impossible.

F2: Fogswood

A small community built on the banks of the Trudge. Sleepy and unbothered.

Rice paddies

Ancient standing stone: Inscrutable megalith at the center of town. Surrounded by guttered candles and small offerings. Said to have been dragged here from deep within the Forest over 1,000 years ago.

Stoneside Inn: Within a stone's toss of the megalith. Small, ramshackle, but cozy enough for a night.

Spear fishers: Gather daily in the early hours before venturing into the Trudge for their catch. Can be hired as guides and have a confident knowledge of the surrounding terrain. Won't venture more than four hexes from home.

Wishmonger's Lodge: Small hut occupied by the local wishmonger. Specializes in woven-reed charms. 4/6 chance they are in residence, otherwise they are out peddling their wares.

Market. Most bustling at midweek, but never empty. Mix of local craftsmen and traveling merchants from up and down the Trudge.

Note: Include a short list of significant NPCs - name and minimal description.

F3: Abandoned Shrine -> Hidden

An old shrine dedicated to a local deity, their domains long forgotten. Nearly completely overgrown and fallen into disrepair. A scant few locals attempt to keep it clear, but fight a losing battle or a scant few locals remember the shrine, but are too elderly to manage the upkeep or No one remembers it at all.

The deity, while sluggish and dormant, has grown resentful of the locals for forgetting about it.

F3: Biome

A dense overgrown marshland cut off from the Trudge.

Rumored to be used as a hideout for pirates.

Giant mosquitos.

F4

Hidden: Band of "highwaymen" that try to extort travelers on a particularly lazy turn of the Trudge. Mostly harmless, made up of youths unhappy with the slower pace of life in the area. Led by a slightly older, charismatic asshole.

Have a stash of some coin and worthless "treasures".

Jump at exciting opportunities.

F5

Hidden: Kingfisher's Pool, a small pond nearly impossible to see from the bands of the Trudge. The calls of kingfishers ring out.

Secret: On nights of the dead moon, glimpses of the Kingfisher's Throne can be seen reflected in the pool.

2/6 chance of a Kingfisher cultist meeting at the pool at night.

[brinefathomcaves]

Brinefathom Caves Level 4, Week 9

Tombstone Island (7, 0) The Brimstone Caverns under it

The Dead Volcano (12, 7)

The Lonely Marshes (14, 2)

Isle of the Stones (16, 13)

The Ruined Temple (19, 16)

[fishrpg]

2024-12-09: Minnesota (Hex 9)

The sights along the road alternate between lakes and farmland. Scents of a distant farming operation carry on the breeze. The ways to the north, southeast, and southwest are prone to delays.

Notable Feature: Town of Bondeby (Settlement)

Literally meaning “Farmer Village” in Swedish, this town was founded mostly by Scandinavian immigrants in the mid-to-late 1800s who came in search of opportunities and affordable farmland. The town happened to be located right on an entrance to The Routes that is surrounded by another entrance to The Routes, which meant that far more farmland was available to claim than would be possible in just the real world. Unfortunately, that’s also the root of the town’s biggest problem. By being built atop a place where reality doesn’t line up, it’s incredibly easy to get lost in this tiny town of just under 2,000 people. It happens so often that the locals even have a name for it: “vänsterman” which translates from Swedish roughly as “left-turning man.”

Bondeby doesn’t have the amenities of a big city, but it does have rustic versions of the necessities: restaurants, a 6-room motel, two farm supply stores, a post office, and a well-attended Lutheran church in addition to the service station on the outskirts of town. Aside from the risk of getting lost, the town is quite safe and the residents look out for both strangers and each other. Bondeby’s location also provides a rare opportunity to rest and let your guard down along The Routes. However, it is incredibly difficult to get off The Routes here (or anywhere else in Minnesota) as the exits have a tendency to loop back to Bondeby.

Hidden: The Anti-War Militiaman

In the Minnesota countryside is a modest farmstead that is the headquarters for a secret militia known as the Voluntary Guard who want to abolish military conscription because of how the US got involved in the Vietnam War. The group is headed by a poet named Will Karlsson, who often laments the rise of imperialism. Will has a contact at a major newspaper in Vermont, and Will is trying to convince them to write several articles about the Voluntary Guard to give it some credibility and raise awareness of the group in a way that will motivate more people to join the militia group. If the party is able to convince Will’s contact to do the stories, the party can potentially receive armed assistance from 1d4 members of the group for up to a week if their services are ever needed.

Service Station: Eriksson’s

Eriksson’s is a service station that primarily caters to refueling and repairing heavy farm equipment, so the pumps are farther apart than at other stations. However, Eriksson’s takes this to an extreme, with a single pump at each of the four corners of the property: gasoline on the north side of the property, and diesel on the south side. Travelers pay at a tiny shack in the middle of the property, though the same weirdness that makes The Routes diverge from reality allows the shack to have much more space inside than the outside dimensions would allow. The current owner, a bearded man named Per, operates a large convenience store out of this shack and even has a spot inside where he occasionally plays films on a reel-to-reel projector to entertain lost travelers.

The reality-warping weirdness moves around slightly (though always within a very small area) and Per has the pumps so far apart to prevent the tanks for diesel and gasoline from mixing because of the movement. Although this arrangement does keep the fuels from mixing, there are some other quirks that come with filling up here.

Each time someone uses the pumps, roll 1d10. On a roll of 1, the pump registers more fuel going through the pump than is actually going into the vehicle and filling up costs twice as much. On a roll of 10, though, more fuel flows into the tank than is registered by the pump and making it cost half as much to fill up. On any other roll, the pump functions exactly as expected.

Items From Other Hexes

The wedding that Tony Watson (Hex 3) wants to stop is being held in this hex. Matilda Watson and Victor Pellegrini are very much intent on getting married, though they can potentially be persuaded to give up their wedding bands as a token of "proof" that the party broke up the marriage. However, Tony will expect one of the rings to be an heirloom from his family, and if that is not provided, he will automatically assume that the party is being dishonest and attempt to attack these "foul and deceitful creatures of the realms beyond."

[tbonechessor]

Hey! who here likes OSR and Hexcrawls cuz I'm looking to run a "Wolves upon the coast" game westmarches style! Meaning its a drop-in and play and try to do at least one little adventure per session.

[malcolmschmitz]

Have you ever wanted to run a globetrotting adventure in D&D, but weren't sure how to model exploration in game? You might want to look into the hexcrawl-- one of D&D's most elegant, and most overlooked, game mechanics.

I've started writing articles for TheGamer-- if you like my writing, my thoughts on tabletop, or D&D as a whole, come check this out!

[theresattrpgforthat]

Heyo, I run a lot of sandbox hexcrawl campaigns, and I was wondering if there was any setting-neutral fantasy generators I could use to help build them on the fly - especially ones that can add settlements and the like as people explore?

THEME: Hexcrawl Generators

Hello friend. When it comes to hex crawls, I understand that pre-written worlds are different from hex-crawl generators. Pre-written hex crawls can be modular, but the setting usually pretty pre-established. On the other hand, there’s plenty of world-generating games that can be pretty setting-agnostic and rather focus on providing oracles to make discovery exciting and somewhat unpredictable. So let’s tackle some of each piece of your list, and maybe we’ll find something that works!

The Undying Sands and Bottled Sea, by Games Omnivorous.

The Undying Sands is a weird desert setting in a weird format. Heavily inspired by Antiquity  and sprinkled with sci-fi elements from Mad Max and Jodorowsky’s Dune, the Undying Sands is a lost decaying civilization. Its glorious past long gone, the Sands are now a wasteland of sorts, dotted with crumbling ruins, antiquated temples, lost technology, and pristine natural wonders beyond the reach of most.

The Bottled Sea is an alternate dimension, where ships and sailors from across history are sucked inadvertently into, through strange wormholes and foul circumstance. Locked in a timeless state, the Sea is a flooded realm of buoyant wastes, coral-reefs of multiversal debris, floating wrecks, and makeshift technology, littered with sunken vestiges of a world that was or could yet be. Four factions with competing agendas vie for control over the Harborage, a suspended port city of rubble and ruin in the very centre of the endless waters.

Both of these games are modular hex tiles, so the lore is pre-written, but because the tiles are drawn randomly, nobody knows where they’ll be heading next until they get there! The games come with a GM screen full of helpful tips and information, and there will be special dungeons and encounters on certain tiles. The designers also have expansions for both of these games available in pamphlet form on their website. This can provide the random generation you’re looking for, as long as you are excited about the setting provided.

Hexcrawl Tool, by Horoscope Zine.

This is a simple tool to help you hexcrawl.

When it comes to finding something that is truly setting-agnostic, this tool is probably what you’re looking for. The tool provides two different ways to determine what lies in the next hex, and uses a simple oracle to tell you what kinds of terrain you’ll be walking into. You can use ideas from other world building games to flesh it out, or even hack it using oracles such as the Hey What’s That Planet oracle from junkgolem, or point-crawl adventures such as The Gardens of Ynn, by Dying Stylishly games. 

The creator has a number of their own system-neutral sandboxes and dungeons, so you can also browse their shop for ideas!

Gen:Hex by marchcrow.

Gen:Hex is a two-page sheet that has several tables to help you generate exotic locales, storied cities, fascinating NPCs and more - on the go! Fits nicely in the back of an A5 journal. Can be used for solo RPG play or collaborative. The parts aren't interlocking so you can use what helps you propel your story forward. 

This is perhaps the best-fitting oracle for some of the above hex map generators, allowing you to fill in the gaps that you’ll find with some of the other generators on this list. It’s two pages of tables with lists of encounters, landscapes, features, troubles and more. 

Hex Kit, by Cone of Negative Energy.

Hex Kit is a multi-platform desktop application for building hex maps to be used with table top role playing games. Rather than being bogged down by features and complications, Hex Kit is built to be intuitive and quick to use with an emphasis on art.

This is an application, rather than a game, so it’s probably more useful for making your hex look uniform in some way after you generate it. The application comes with a number of basic tools, but the creator’s storefront has a number of additional tiles that you can import, and you can get additional hexes from other creators, such as the HPS Cartography Kit, and The Tiles of Xark, by Highland Paranormal Society.

These tools don’t come with oracles for the hexes - it’s up to you to decide what each hex means. If you want to see something that makes use of this application (and you want some random tables), you can check out Hexception, a mega-hexcrawl by kumada1.

If you bought the Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality back in 2020, you already own Hex Kit and HPS Cartography Kit!

Games I’ve Recommended in the Past

Wonderfall, by Catscratcher Studio. (Technically solo but has great generators for locations, encounters, people and quests.)

[labyrinthlurker]

Currently Soloing: The Dark of Swordfish Islands. Hands down one the best settings/adventures/format ever made. Using Maze Rats by Questing Beast (Ben Milton) as the core rule set,

[aohendo]

Have I gotten distracted from writing?

Yes.

Am I enjoying myself?

Also yes.

Board game pieces y’all. Great times

[tkilian]

Hexcrawling

[macguffinandco]

Everyone loves a beach episode! So we assume everyone will also love a beach hex-crawl adventure. Botany Beach is our system-neutral hex-crawling one-shot, dropping tomorrow on a MacGuffin & Co patreon page near you!

[basilisika]

i made a magical girl supplement, with 6 classes, 18 items, and a hexcrawl for the game bastards. !

find it here!

[cleverartcollection]

Valentyne, Knight of Hell and the PC of my friend, who will be playing in a hexcrawl alongside Percy

Details and flats:

[brinefathomcaves]

Aug 8: Weather on the Sunless Sea

To determine the weather on the Sunless Sea, use the weather flower above. Start at the hex marked by the star, then roll 1d6 at the start of each subsequent day and move one hex in that direction. The new hex determines that day’s weather. Note it, because it will be the basis for the following day’s roll. If a roll would take you off an edge of the hex, move to the hex on the exact opposite side of the flower.

A ship can avoid inclement weather by changing course. If it does so, use the same weather hex as the previous day, and roll again as normal the following day.

Weather Descriptions

Clear: Cloudy and dim (as is normal on the Sunless Sea)

Rainy: Light to moderate rain.

Rain of Fish: Every creature on deck takes bludgeoning damage. Possible damage to sails, railings, and decks. Unlike other weather, a rain of fish appears suddenly on an otherwise-clear day and lasts for 15-20 minutes.

Rain Storm: Heavy rain and wind. Navigation checks are made with Disadvantage.

Thunder Storm: Heavy rain and wind with thunder and lightning. Navigation checks are made with Disadvantage, small chance of ship catching fire.

Magic Storm: A thunderstorm infused with magic. Roll on the Magical Storms table below.

Dead Day: No wind for 24 hours. Otherwise clear.

Fog: Navigation checks are made with Disadvantage. Experienced Sunless Sea sailors are reluctant to sail into fog for fear they might be magical.

Magic Fog: A patch of the magical fog that surrounds the sea. A ship that sails into it is teleported to a random hex 1d3 hexes away. 

Magical Storms (d4)

The effects of magical storms are in addition to the normal effect of a thunderstorm.

Illusionary terrain makes reliable navigation impossible. The ship travels in a random direction rather than its intended course.

Giant hands composed of water rise from the sea and grab the unwary. Each hour, each creature on deck must make a Dexterity Save or be pulled overboard.

Parts of the sea are transformed into ice, rocks, slime, blood, and worse. Possible damage to the hull, and the ship’s speed is halved while in the storm.

The storm’s magic brings objects to life. 1d6 Large or smaller objects on deck become animated objects and attack the nearest non-construct creature.

(non-key rambling under the cut)

This one was made by me (too few weather flowers include rains of fish, in my humble opinion), but hex flowers as a concept were created by Goblin's Henchman.

[fishrpg]

2024-12-17: Arizona (Hex 17)

Greenish gray chaparral on hills and mountainsides forms the dominant feature of the landscape. The scent of smoke from a wildfire lingers on the breeze, though neither smoke nor flames are visible.

Notable Feature: The Flying Schoolbus (Dungeon)

Medium Dungeon, 12 areas

A bus belonging to Arizona State University is parked in the air, floating about 30 feet off the ground above the shoulder of the highway. With a combination of ingenuity and/or climbing utility poles, the bus's main door is reachable.

Two few years ago in 1964, the Arizona State University Sun Devils basketball team was late to an away game. When they arrived, the team played as a shell of their former selves and everyone seemed to have a worrying amount of memory loss that year. Most folks chalked it up to the team experimenting with drugs from hippies, but that wasn't the case.

Instead, the team passed through The Routes at the exact moment a malevolent but incorporeal entity that Christian theology would describe as a devil passed through the area. For a brief moment, the bus of athletes and the devil merged. This devil took most of the memories of the team to create a physical form for itself, while the actual team eventually left The Routes and didn't do too well at basketball that year.

The floating bus is the form that the devil took, and until the devil relinquishes that body, it cannot leave this part of The Routes. Inside the bus is a hellish cavern that is much larger on the inside than it should be. Each row of seats is a separate area, as is the driver's area and the emergency exit. Forcing open the emergency exit at the back of the bus from the inside will cause the devil to lose control of the bus and disappear (anyone inside the bus when this happens will appear on the roadside). Unfortunately, the dungeon is prowled by weird amalgamations of basketball players who want to stop the "opposing team" from making it to the back of the bus. These basketball players vary widely in appearance, though every one has a similar maroon and gold uniform and their face emits a blinding light that resembles the surface of the sun.

Successfully evicting the devil from The Routes will cause the memories to return to the team and turn them into a powerhouse of athletics once again. As a reward, the party will get season tickets to any ASU Sun Devils game and also gain the ability to borrow buses from the school for only the cost of gas.

Service Station: Tired All The Time

Most of the money generated by this service station comes from tire sales. Nearly any type of tire a vehicle might need can be found at Tired All The Time. Flat tires can also be patched here, but serious mechanical issues will need to be tended to elsewhere.

In addition to tires (and fuel), this shop is also home to "The Country's Blackest Coffee" which tastes foul but it'll keep someone awake for 1d4+1 days. Other stimulants of varying degrees of legality are also available for purchase.

Items From Other Hexes

The Arizona Guard unit that Butch Henderson (Hex 16) owes money to is located nearby, though reaching their location requires leaving The Routes. Anyone who Butch owes money to can be paid off, but dealing with the AWOL situation is going to be much harder.