In its most basic form, of course, the hexcrawl is a collection of hexes. Each hex contains some form of keyed content, and the PCs move from one hex to the next, encountering whatever each hex happens to contain.

Insofar as it goes, this basic functionality is just fine. Essential, really. It’s what makes the hexcrawl a fundamentally robust structure in which the players can never truly become stuck, because they can always just choose another hex to explore.

But if this basic functionality is the only thing a hexcrawl has to offer, then the hexcrawl becomes like a game of Memory with no matching tiles: You just select a tile at random, flip it up, and collect it. In order for a game of Memory to become interesting, there has to be a connection between the tiles (i.e., the pairs you’re trying to match). By learning these connections, the choice of tile in Memory becomes meaningful.

Similarly, for a hexcrawl to truly come to life at the gaming table, the players need to be able to learn meaningful information about the hexes and use that information to guide their exploration of the hexmap.

• “Those bandits told us their main camp was located in a cave three miles west of the waterfall. Let’s head there and shut them down for good.”
• “Do you want to go back and check out that weird tower with the bleeding walls we saw sticking out of the Sepulchral Holt?”
• “I don’t know where this map leads, but there must have been a reason that demon was carrying it.”

As the PCs gain information like this, they transcend random wandering and are able to set goals. Aimless curiosity is transformed into purposeful searching and true exploration is achieved.

There are a number of ways that the PCs can get this information. Rumors, for example, can either be freely distributed or gleaned from urban locations. Tracks can turn almost any random encounter into an information source. (“We can follow these goblin raiders back to their village.”)

But one of the most powerful technique is to connect your hexes: By exploring one hex, the PCs gain information that leads them to another hex. In this way, the random hexes of aimless curiosity are transmuted into purpose, and that purpose becomes self-perpetuating as each additional hex the PCs explore teaches them more and more about the area they’re exploring.

CLUES & LEADS

At a basic level, you’re including leads in your hex key that point to other hexes.

• The goblins are working for the necromancer, so if you raid their village you might maps or correspondence with the necromancer; or you might interrogate them or follow their tracks to the necromancer’s tower in the Sepulchral Holt.
• Conversely, if you go to the Sepulchral Holt you’ll find goblins from the village serving there (offering any number of opportunities for planting leads). Also, the necromancer is trying to help the goblins wipe out the bandits in the area (to eliminate the competition), so there’s a map indicating the location of the cave where they make their lair.

And so forth.

Since we’re talking about clues and leads, your thoughts might naturally lead you towards the Three Clue Rule:

For any conclusion you want the PCs to make, include at least three clues.

When it comes to hex connections, however, this is not strictly necessary. Remember that the hexcrawl structure itself provides a default method for discovering keyed content, so it’s okay if the clues for a location “fail.” So it’s fine if you only have two or one or even zero clues pointing to a location. (For the same reason that you don’t need three clues pointing to every room in a dungeon.)

Nevertheless, in keying your hexmap, you might want to keep a revelation list of your hexes to track how the various locations are being connected to each other. This may be particularly useful if you haven’t designed a hexcrawl before and want to make establishing hex connections a point of emphasis.

As a rule of thumb for your first hex key, for example, you might just make sure that every keyed location has at least one clue pointing to another location. That will likely result in some locations have lots of clues pointing to them and other locations not having any clues pointing to them, but it does make sure that the PCs are likely to quickly find specific information they can pursue if they’re currently without a specific goal.

TREASURE MAPS & RANDOM GENERATION

An interesting feature of the original 1974 edition of D&D is that its random treasure tables featured treasure maps. Lots of treasure maps. (25% of all “magic item” results, for example, would actually result in a map.)

This is a very interesting mechanic, because it systematizes the injection of hex connections (or to similar effect in a megadungeon). Rolling to generate a monster’s treasure would periodically prompt the DM to provide a clear-cut (and very tantalizing!) lead to another location.

(A similar system was that monster treasure was, by default, only found in the monster’s lair. So if you encountered a monster as a random encounter, you would need to track them back to their lair — which would likely have other encounters in it — in order to get your pay day.)

These systems were removed from the game, most likely because being randomly prompted to provide a full-blown treasure map to your players was daunting for many DMs, but I take a couple of lessons from this.

First, literal treasure maps are awesome. Include them in myriad forms. (Tattered parchment. Scrawled in charcoal on a ruined wall. A small blue orb that vibrates when you head in a particular direction.)

Second, some degree of randomization can be an excellent prompt to challenge ourselves and seek creative solutions that might otherwise have never occurred to us.

You can play around with this in all kinds of ways. For example, a fun exercise might be:

• Roll 1d6-2 for each keyed location to determine how many leads should be there pointing to other locations.
• For each lead, randomize the hex that the clue points to.

Trying to figure out how/why these connections exist will likely enrich your game world in fascinating ways.

(And if not, just ignore it. It’s a fun prompt, not the dice gestapo.)

VISIBLE LANDMARKS

As a final note, I’ll point out a form of hex connection that might not occur to you even though it’s in plain sight. Literally.

Landmarks which can be seen from a great distance — i.e., in another hex — are technically connected to all of those hexes from which they can be seen. (In a very literal, but nonetheless significant, way.)

Conversely, a high vantage point that allows you to spot is also a form of hex connection, allowing PCs to learn information that they can use to guide their navigation and exploration of the wilderness.

Back to 5E Hexcrawls

Go to Running the Hexcrawl

This post contains SPOILERS for Descent Into Avernus and the Avernus Remix.

The Avernian Hexcrawl was designed for Act III of the Alexandrian Remix of Descent Into Avernus. Intended for a dedicated table, the primary assumption is that the PCs will likely be exploring the hexcrawl in pursuit of the components required to repair a dream machine. It features 40-mile hexes with custom terrain, and we’ll also be using a different set of optional rules, including:

• variable travel distance
• the Avernian random encounter procedures
• the advanced rules for expedition speed

The PCs are:

• Kerstina, an Elturian hell knight
• Ereshkigal, a tiefling warlock
• Adi Themis, a halfling artificer

BEGINNING THE SESSION

The PCs have arrived at the Alvskraema caravanserai, located in Hex B2 next to the bridge which crosses the Pit of Shummrath. Ereshkigal’s infernal warmachine was damaged in a confrontation with a darksphinx and they came here looking for repairs.

Adi Themis realizes that the Alvskraema is serving elf meat as a delicacy, so they decide to pass on both the good and the common room. But while settling payment with Meltrus, one of the two forgemasters, Ereshkigal decides to go fishing and see if Meltrus has any leads on dream machine components.

Rolling on the Avernian rumor tables, I get this result:

Nirvanan cogboxes are used by modrons. I heard that the warlord Algoran recently captured a modron. His lair is located at the far end of the Ashlands. (Hex B6)

That’s perfect, so I just need to put that into Meltrus’ mouth:

Me (Meltrus): He strokes he wriggling, prehensile beard. “A Nirvanan cogbox, eh? Haven’t seen one of those in years. They’re mostly used by modrons, and there aren’t many of those around here. But you may be in luck. One of Algoran’s gladiators was in here a few days ago, spending his winnings on avariel goulash. He mentioned that Algoran’s out-riders had captured a modron recently.”

Ereshkigal: Algoran, huh? Where can we find him?

Me (Meltrus): “He founded a gladiatorial arena. It’s almost due south from here, built into the mountains that ring the far side of the Ashlands.”

The lead seems a little thin, but it’s close. So the PCs decide to check it out.

STARTING OUT

The PCs mount up on their infernal warmachines, which have a speed of 100 ft. They decide to travel at a fast pace, which means (using the advanced rules for expedition speed) that they’ll have a base pace of 60 miles per watch. This also means they’ll have a penalty to navigation checks, but they decide speed is more important and they won’t be able to get too far off course before they can see the mountains and navigate by landmark.

They’re starting in Hex B2 and heading south, intending to enter Hex B3. The terrain in both hexes is Wastelands and it’s Trackless, so they’ll be moving at ½ speed (30 miles per watch). They’ve already traveled one watch today to reach the Alvskraema, so they only have one watch of travel left. But they only need 20 miles of progress to reach Hex B3, so I know they’ll be getting there right at the end of their traveling day.

The group has a standard operating procedure while traveling: Kerstina takes the Navigator action, while the other two PCs take the Sentinel watch action.

As they start heading south:

1. I make a random encounter check, rolling 2d10 and 1d12. No encounter is indicated.
2. In addition to the normal random encounter check in Avernus, I also make an oppressive environment I roll 1d6, but no oppressive condition is indicated.
3. Kerstina makes her navigation check. The Wastelands are Navigation DC 12. She rolls a natural 20 for a total of 21. (20 + 6 for her bonus – 5 penalty for fast travel pace.) The groups heads due south without any difficulty.
4. Ereshkigal and Adi Themis make Wisdom (Perception) checks, but there’s nothing unusual to notice out here. I describe the broken scree of the Wastelands churning under their serrated wheels.

I mark 20 progress, which — as we determined — brings them to Hex B3. I check the key for Hex B3 to make sure there are no special conditions or visible landmarks (there isn’t), then I reset the progress counter to 0. They’ll need another 40 miles of progress to cross Hex B3 and enter Hex B4.

MAKING CAMP

Finished with travel for the day, the PCs circle up their warmachines. They decide to all take an active watch action, then take shifts for the rest of the night (with Kerstina, then Ereshkigal, then Adi Themis taking a watch with the Sentinel action).

For the first watch:

• Adi Themis makes camp.
• Ereshkigal reads some arcane texts they purchased in the Purple City.
• Kerstina takes the Forage action. The Wastelands Forage DC is 20 and, as a mortal, Kerstina has disadvantage on the check in Avernus. She fails. (But it was worth a shot.)

Although they’re not traveling, I once gain make a random encounter check. No encounter is indicated.

However, when I make the oppressive environment check, I roll a 1, triggering the condition. I then roll d12, getting a 3, which indicates extreme heat. I describe the temperature skyrocketing until the wasteland scree is steaming. Everyone needs to make a saving throw, and Kerstina fails. She comes stumbling back into camp not only empty-handed, but having suffered a level of exhaustion.

The PCs decide to shuffle things up: Kerstina needs to rest and can no longer take the first watch, so Adi Themis swaps with her. They decide to just wait out the extreme heat, as traveling under those conditions would be extremely debilitating. But they get lucky: The following watch I roll another 1 on the oppressive environment check, ending the condition.

I finish making the rest of the encounter checks for the night. During the sixth watch, an encounter is indicated. I roll d100 and determine the encounter would be with 5d10 imps. However, when I make the % Tracks check, it indicates that it would be a tracks encounter. That would be an exploration encounter, and since the PCs aren’t currently moving the encounter doesn’t happen.

HEADING SOUTH

The next day, the PCs load up and continue heading south. (Setting the same pace and so forth from the day before.) With 30 miles of progress per watch, I know they’ll reach Hex B4 during their second watch of travel (assuming nothing goes away).

In the first watch, I generate an encounter:

• d100 roll comes up 67, indicating a 1 yagnoloth.
• Tracks check and Lair check are both negative, so it’s definitely a yagnoloth.
• I roll a random encounter distance, determining that the yagnoloth will be detectable at 840 ft.
• I roll on the Avernian Reaction Table and discover that the yagnoloth will be Cautious/Threatening.

What’s the yagnoloth doing? Well, the write-up in Tome of Foes indicates that they’re often employed as contract negotiators. I decide he must be carrying (2d6) 4 pacts and (1d6) 2 soul coins to the adjunct court of Hell in Hex G1. Since he’s carrying some important material, I decide to go with Cautious more than Threatening.

And because the yagnoloth is Cautious, I decide to also make a Dexterity (Stealth) check, setting DC 13 for opposed Wisdom (Perception) checks.

The exact time of this encounter doesn’t seem to matter, so I don’t bother making an additional check to nail it down.

I now call for the PCs’ skill checks from their watch actions: A navigation check from Kerstina (which she passes) and Wisdom (Perception) checks from Ereshkigal (6, failure) and Adi Themis (18, success).

Since the PCs are traveling at a fast pace and can’t use Stealth, the yagnoloth has no difficulty spotting them.

I describe to Adi Themis the yagnoloth crossing the wastelands about several hundred feet off to the right of their path. I probably also hold up a picture:

So now what will the PCs do? Given the encounter distance and their relative speed to the yagnoloth, they may simply choose to steer wide and pass the yugoloth by. Or perhaps they’ll approach, hoping to glean more information about the region. (In which case, perhaps the yagnoloth will be the one to reveal how they can break the pact binding Elturel, if they haven’t figured that out already.) Or they may think the lone figure will be easy pickings and a chance to enrich themselves on whatever loot it may be carrying. (If so, who do the pacts the yagnoloth carries belong to? And will they come looking for them?)

A bit of local color to their journey or a pivot point which may change the entire course of the campaign? That’s the beautiful, emergent play of the hexcrawl.

Back to 5E Hexcrawls

Go to Running the Hexcrawl

The Thracian Hexcrawl was an open table I ran using the original 1974 edition of D&D. The example below is an abbreviated, annotated record of actual play from that campaign, which I’ve adapted slightly to be consistent with the mechanics and procedures detailed in 5E Hexcrawls.

BEGINNING THE SESSION

As the players arrive, I pull their character sheets out of the appropriate folder. Since this is an open table, the players may be choosing which of their active PCs they’re going to be playing. (After which, I’ll return the other characters to the folder.)

In my Thracian Hexcrawl, two things happen at this point:

1. I make a rumor check for each primary PC (not for hirelings; although it’s possible for a hireling to be the vector by which a PC hears the rumor). There’s a 1 in 3 chance for each PC that they’ll receive a rumor. If they do, I roll on the rumor table.
2. I make a morale check for each hireling employed by the active PCs. On a success, the hireling continues adventuring with their employer. On a failure, I use a system based on the OD&D reaction table to determine the hireling’s action: They might automatically leave the PC’s service or demand an additional bonus of some variable amount. (Usually nothing happens, because the players have learned to keep the morale of their hirelings high.)
3. I make a check to potentially generate new hirelings who are available for hire in the home base.

Based on these checks, and their outcomes, I update the campaign status sheet appropriately.

While I’m doing this, the players are generally getting prepared for the adventure. This may be creating new characters if they’re needed. For established characters, it includes:

1. Discussing what their expedition is going to be.
2. Buying equipment.
3. Hiring hirelings.
4. Any other business they might need to attend to while in town.

The players may, of course, have questions for me while they’re doing this. It’s generally pretty easy to juggle their requests while simultaneously taking care of my bookkeeping.

STARTING OUT

While the players are wrapping things up, I’ll grab my 6d8 and roll them. This represents a full day’s worth of encounter checks (since there are six watches in a day). By reading the dice left-to-right as they fall, I can rapidly determine which watches in the day have an encounter. Since I don’t know yet where the PCs will be on those days, I can’t generate the specific encounters (which are region-dependent), but I can use my worksheet to jot down the Day/Watch when encounters will be happening. By generating three or four days worth of encounter checks up front, I can simplify my workflow once the PCs hit the road.

Note: If I do, in fact, know that the PCs are going to be heading in a particular direction and will likely be traveling through a given region for a lengthy period of time, I can also go ahead and generate full encounters at this point.

In this case, the PCs are in the city of Maernath, located in Hex O6. Maernath is an old city-state in the setting. It was here long before the Duchy of Thracia began pushing east in recent years (establishing the Keep on the Borderlands and the logging village of Caerdheim to the south) and the City Fathers occasionally chaff against the “authority” of the newcomers. Although the early adventures of the PCs were based primarily out of Caerdheim (which was near the Caverns of Thracia), an increase in interest in the Palace of Red Death to the north led to an increased number of expeditions being mounted from Maernath. Those expeditions resulted in various PCs gaining a lot of lore about the area surrounding Maernath and that, in turn, spurred even more expeditions there.

The PCs leave town along the road heading south. They choose to travel at normal pace. Because they’re following a Road/Trail through Plains hex, their movement modifier is x1, which means they move at their normal expedition speed of 12 miles per watch. (We’re not using the advanced rules for determining expedition speed based on the speed of the expedition’s slowest member.)

Maernath’s position in Hex O6 is biased, so it only takes 4 progress to exit the hex in this direction. They’re aiming for the river, which is on the road right at the border of the hex (so they obviously have no difficulty finding it).

Their goal is to follow the river into the Old Forest (Hex P7), so now I’m going to look ahead: Their course along the river takes them through the near side of the hex (6 miles away) into Hex P6 and, from there, they will then pass through another near side into Hex P7 (another 6 miles). Although they’ve left the road, they’re still traveling through Plains and the river provides enough of a track that they’re still traveling at 12 miles per watch. Total it up:

4 miles (Maernath to River/Hex O7) + 6 miles (O7 to P6) + 6 miles (P6 to P7) = 16 miles

Which means they’ll arrive at the edge of the Old Forest a little over an hour into their second watch. This is notable because, looking at my worksheet, I can see that the second watch of the day has a wandering encounter (I rolled 1 on the 1d8 when making the encounter check). I can determine the time in a watch by rolling 1d8. The result is a 3, which basically means the encounter is scheduled to take place just as they’re reaching the edge of the Old Forest.

This is a border hex, and I’ve listed a 50% chance of border encounters for the Old Forest. So even though we’re still in the Plains, there’s a 50% chance that I’ll roll an Old Forest encounter instead.

1. I roll a 13, so that’s exactly what’s going to happen.
2. I flip to the Old Forest encounter table and roll. The result I get is “Slimes,” which has a sub-table which generates Gray Ooze.
3. Gray Ooze has a 25% chance of being a Tracks encounter, but I roll 46 (so it’s not).

They have no chance of being a Lair encounter, so I can skip that step.

Given the confluence of factors involved, I’m going to have the Gray Oozes appear just as the river passes beneath the boughs of the Old Forest. They’ll be draped across the tree branches above the river like some kind of horrific Spanish moss.

INTO THE OLD FOREST

After the PCs have dealt with (or avoided) the Gray Oozes, they’ll be able to continue along the river. It’s a Medium Forest and the trail has disappeared, so their speed is going to drop by ½. They had 8 miles of movement left in their second watch, so they’ll be able to gain 4 progress through Hex P7.

Three miles along the river, however, they come to a tree on the south bank of the river with the Dwarven letter “mu” carved into its trunk. They’re familiar with it. In fact, one of the PCs left it here as a marker: Gordur, a powerful orc stronghold, lies several miles due south from this spot.

This, however, is not their goal. They continue along the river for another mile and then make camp for the night. The next day, they continue another two miles until they find a similar tree with the Dwarven letter “thod” carved into it. This marker was place due north of the Crypt of Luan Phien. The crypt is their ultimate goal, so now they turn south, away from the clear navigational landmark of the river, and into the depths of the Old Forest.

At this point, they need to start making navigation checks. Epicaste, a hireling rescued by the dwarf Aeng from a thousand-year slumber in the Caverns of Thracia, is the group’s navigator, so she steps forward and takes point.

1. It’s a Medium Forest, so the Navigation DC is 16.
2. Epicaste blows the check. (Possibly because Delmhurst, another hireling, keeps second-guessing her.) I roll 1d10 to determine the group’s veer. With a roll of 8, I determine that they’re veering to the right. Instead of heading due south into Hex P8 (which is where they want to go), they’re going to end up southwest in Hex O8.

LOST IN THE OLD FOREST

When does that actually happen? Well, they entered Hex P7 from due north. Whether they’re leaving into Hex P8 or Hex O8, they’re still existing through the far side of the hex. So they need to rack up 12 progress to exit the hex.

• They’d gained 4 progress in the hex during their second watch. They don’t want to do a forced march, so they stop traveling after the second watch.
• During the first watch of the next day (their third watch of travel overall), they’ll gain another 6 progress. That’s a total of 10 progress, which is not quite enough.
• Therefore, they’ll enter Hex O8 about midway through the second watch of their second day of travel.

Checking my worksheet, I can see that I generated a location encounter for the second watch of the second day, so once again I generate a random time and determine that they’ll encounter the hex’s keyed location AFTER they’ve entered Hex O8. (If the encounter had happened earlier, it would have been with the keyed location in Hex P7.)

I flip to the key for Hex O8:

Me: Towards the waning hours of the day, you enter a small clearing. Criss-crossing branches grow into what appear to be houses with walls of woven moss.

Aeng: I don’t remember this.

Delmhurst: I think the thousand-year dummy has gotten us lost again.

It turns out the strange houses are empty and abandoned. It’s getting late in the day, so the PCs decide to make camp here for the night. They’ll try to backtrack the trail the next day and figure out where they made the wrong turn.

And that’s basically all there is to it. With a strong key and a clean procedure, the hexcrawl will flow naturally in response to the explorations of the PCs, drawing them deeper and deeper into the mysteries of the wilderness.

Next: Example of Play – Avernian Hexcrawl

This will be a detailed look at the actual process of running a hexcrawl at the gaming table: How I organize my tools, what I’m thinking about during the game, the decisions I make (and why I make them), how I play with and exploit the tools, and so forth.

I’m not entirely sure how useful this will be, but I’m hoping it will provide some useful insight and practical advice into using 5E Hexcrawls.

THE FOUR DOCUMENTS

What I’ve found over the years is that no two campaigns ever use exactly the same methods of documentation, but when I’m running a hexcrawl I generally find that I’m maintaining four “documents”:

• THE HEX MAP. Printed off on a single 8.5” x 11” piece of paper that I can lay flat on the table in front of me.
• THE BINDER. This contains the campaign key. It includes background information (historical epochs, current civilizations, custom terrain types, environmental conditions, etc.), random encounter tables, and the hex key.
• THE FOLDER. Each document in this folder details a single location. As described in Designing the Hexcrawl, any location that requires more than a single page to describe gets bumped out of the hex key and placed in its own document. (This keeps the hex key clean and easy to use; it also makes it easier to organize and use these larger adventures.) Each adventure location is labeled with and sorted by its hex number for easy access when needed.
• CAMPAIGN STATUS SHEET. This document is updated and reprinted for each session. It’s responsible for keeping the campaign in motion. In my Thracian Hexcrawl, for example, the campaign status sheet included: A list of current events in Caerdheim and Maernath (the two cities serving as home base for the PCs); a list of empty complexes (which I reference when I make a once-per-session check to see if they’ve been reinhabited); the current rumor table; details about the various businesses being run by the PCs; and the master loyalty/morale table for PC hirelings. I talk about campaign status sheets in more detail over here.

STATUS QUO PREP

The heart of the hexcrawl, of course, is the hex key itself (along with the folder of detailed locations). And because the promise of the hexcrawl is that the PCs can go anywhere they want, it takes a lot of front-loaded prep to get this material ready for the first session of play.

The up-side, though, is that once all that prep is finished, a hexcrawl campaign based around wilderness exploration becomes incredibly prep-light: I typically spend no more than 10-15 minutes getting ready for each session, because all I’m really doing is jotting down a few notes to keep my documentation up to date with what happened in the last session.

What makes this work is that the content of each hex is designed in a state of “status quo” until the PCs touch it. Once the PCs start touching stuff, of course, the ripples can start spreading very fast and very far. However, in the absence of continued PC interaction, things in the campaign world will generally trend back towards a new status quo.

This status quo method generally only works if you have robust, default structures for delivering scenario hooks. In the case of the hexcrawl, of course, I do: Both the rumor tables and the hexcrawl structure itself will drive PCs towards new scenarios. (If all else fails in a hexcrawl, of course, the PCs can always choose a direction and start walking to find something interesting to do.)

The advantage of the status quo method is that it minimizes the amount of work you have to do as a GM. (Keeping 100+ hexes up in the air and active at all times would require a ridiculous amount of effort.) It also minimizes the amount of prep work which is wasted. (If you’re constantly generating background events that the PCs are unaware of and not interacting with, that’s all wasted effort.)

In practical terms, it means that you prep for each session consists of “touching base” on a half dozen or perhaps a dozen “active” hexes. That might mean:

• Updating the adversary roster
• Updating the key to reflect PC actions (although if you keep good notes during play, this is often perfunctory)
• Repopulating an empty location (using your random encounter tables or following your inspiration)

In addition to whatever tasks are necessary around the PCs’ home base.

A key thing to keep in mind throughout this process is that “status quo” doesn’t mean “boring.” It also doesn’t mean that literally nothing is happening at a given location. For example, the status quo for a camp of goblin slavers isn’t “the goblins all sit around.” The status quo is that there’s a steady flow of slaves passing through the camp and being sold.

For a deeper discussion of this, check out Status Quo Design.

SETUP

An hour or so before the game is scheduled to start, I’ll set up the table.

I sit at one end of a long dining room table. I place a TV tray to the left of my chair and another TV tray to the right of my chair. Then I pull out the box that I keep all my hexcrawl material in.

On the TV tray to my right, I place the Binder that contains the campaign key and the Folder that contains the documents detailing individual locations.

There’s a second folder that contains my GM Screen. I use a moduler screen, that allows me to insert reference sheets. (The reference sheets consist of the watch checklist and all supporting material, like terrain modifiers.) This folder also contains several copies of my GM Hexcrawl Worksheet, and I pull one of those out and place it on the table in front of me.

I remove the Hex Map from the binder and also place that on the table in front of me.

Next, the Rulebooks. I place those on the TV tray to my left. If I have additional copies for the players, I’ll place those in the middle of the table.

I also have a folder of Player Supplies, which are also placed in the middle of the table:

• Blank paper (including graph paper and hex paper)
• Blank character sheets (for an open table; I’ll also remove these once we start playing to reduce clutter)
• Communal maps (which have been drawn by the players and shared with the group)

Also in the campaign box are the Characters. I have a folder for living characters in the campaign and another folder for dead characters. These stay in the box: I generally don’t need to reference them during play, so it’s best to keep them out of the way.

I print out a copy of the Campaign Status Sheet for the current session and also place it on the table in front of me.

Finally, I’ll grab my dice bag and lay out the Dice I need: 2d4, 8d6, 6d8, 2d10, 2d12, 6d20.

• 8d6 for fireballs and lightning bolts.
• 6d8 so that I can roll an entire day’s worth of encounter checks in a single go.
• 6d20 because I can simultaneously roll an entire mob’s attack rolls. (These are generally in three pairs of matching colors, so that I can easily group them for mixed types.)

(See Random GM Tip: Fistfuls of Dice for more advice on rolling and reading lots of dice at the same time.)

Next: Example of Play – Thracian Hexcrawl

Go to Part 1

#5. IMPROVISED RANDOM GENERATORS

Okay, we started by filling the map with every ounce of creative thought we had. Then we started recklessly stealing everything we could lay our hands on. But we’re still staring at empty hexes. Now what?

Now we need to get our creative juices flowing again by rapidly injecting fresh ideas that will break us out of the dried-out box our thinking is currently trapped in. There are a lot of ways to provide this stimuli.

For example, I’ve used Magic the Gathering cards to provide inspiration. In fact, you can use the MTGRANDOM website to generate a random Magic card. Let’s do that a few times and see what we get:

(click for large image)

So what I’m seeing here are some incredibly creepy constructs. Let’s say there’s a bunch of them. They’re harvesting spores from a crop of strange flowers that blossomed in the wake of an meteorite falling to earth. How do these constructs work? Well, looks like brains are being sucked out of people and placed into the constructs. Obviously Kjora there is in charge of the whole operation.

Combine that basic set up with an appropriate map from Dyson Logos and you should be good to go.

Alternatively, grab a random map from Dyson Logos first and then use the Goblin Ampersand to help you figure out what’s happening there by flipping to two random pages in the Monster Manual.

Another option is to repurpose random encounter generators. Sadly, this is a tool lacking in 5^th Edition, but older editions include comprehensive generators that can be used (and a variety third-party options can be found).

For example, using the generators found in the 1^st Edition of AD&D:

1. Roll 1d8 to determine a column on the “Sub-Arctic Conditions” encounter table. I roll a 6, so the result is “Mountains.”
2. Roll 1d100 with a result of 65. That’s a giant owl. According to the 1^st Edition Monster Manual, giant owls appear in groups of 1d4+1. I roll and generate a group of five owls.
3. Giant owls have a treasure type of “Q x 5, X.” I roll on those treasure tables and I get 1 miscellaneous magic, 1 potion, and 1 gem. Rolling on the sub-tables, I get a black pearl (500 gp), a potion of human control, and an amulet of life protection.

Okay, the hex I’m looking at is in the Old Forest, so let’s try something like this:

N7 – TREE OF THE ELDER OWL

A giant tree, over 80 feet wide at its base and towering several hundred feet in the air. Around the base of the tree are a number of strange carvings, intermixed with primitive pictures of owls.

CALL OF THE OWL: Anyone performing an owl call near the base of the tree will cause a hidden door to open, allowing passage into the hollow center of the trunk.

COUNCIL OF OWLS: Within the tree, four giant owls sit on perches. For an appropriate tribute, these owls can each cast augury once per day.

UPPER EYRIE: For a much larger tribute, the Council will have the supplicant remove their arms and armor. Then one of the owls will clutch them by the shoulders and fly them to the upper eyrie where they will be placed before the Elder Owl.

THE ELDER OWL: The left eye of the Elder Owl has been replaced with a black pearl (500 gp) and he wears an amulet of life protection. The Elder Owl will answer questions as per a commune spell, but he is also completely enamored with physical beauty: If someone of particular beauty (Charisma 16+) presents themselves, he will use his potion of human control in an attempt to enslave them.

#6. SPIN-OFFS

Regardless of how you’re stocking a hex, you should keep your mind open to other locations that the current hex suggests.

For example, you’ve got a necromancer in a crystalline spire who’s served by a bunch of goblins he’s charmed by writing arcane runes on the insides of their eyelids and then sewing their eyelids shut. Where’d he get the goblins from? Maybe there’s a village of them living nearby. They protect a tree that bears a single, bright red fruit each year. The fruit has magical properties and each year the necromancer comes to claim the fruit and take away goblin slaves.

Or you’re keying a grotto that a bunch of bandits are using as a hideout. Turns out these bandits have longbows of remarkably high quality. This is because they’re trading with a one-eyed troll who lives in a cave that can only be accessed through a green crystal which thrusts up through the forest floor: Lay your hand upon the crystal, say the magic password, and the crystal becomes intangible. The troll is a master bowyer.

#7. WALK AWAY

Finally, be willing to walk away from the project and take a break: Watch a TV show. Read a book. Flip through some unrelated game manuals. Power up the PS5.

Give your brain a chance to breathe and your creative batteries a chance to recharge.

This is not, by any stretch of the imagination, a comprehensive catalog or definitive technique for keying a hexcrawl. It’s just stuff that’s worked for me while keying hexcrawls.

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