As described in Part 7 of the Remix and the Alexandrian Hexcrawl, I prefer to run hexcrawls as a player-unknown structure: The abstraction of the hexmap is useful to me as the Dungeon Master, but kept secret from the players so that they can engage with the game world as their characters would.
This is not, however, the only way to run a hexcrawl. In other hexcrawl systems, the players are given a hexmap and know what hex they’re in (unless they’re lost, in which case they are misled about what hex they’re in). There are a number of potential advantages to this approach:
- It can enhance clarity and simplify the complexity of running the hexcrawl. (This can include handling movement by simply counting hexes.)
- It gives a clear structure to the PCs for creating their own map of the wilderness. (They basically just “fill in the hex.”)
- It can make it easy to provide a list of “hex actions” that the player can choose to focus on specific hexes. (For example, “we’re going to spend extra time searching this hex to see if we can find anything interesting.” This can be particularly useful in mid- or high-level play if the PCs begin to engage in realm-building game play, because it allows for things like hex-clearing. In fact, even if you, like me, prefer a player-unknown exploration model, it can often be useful to switch semi-diegetically to a player-known hexmap for realm-oriented play.)
But I digress.
The point is that people may want to run the Avernian hexcrawl using player-known hexmaps. After a discussion with members of my Discord, I thought it would be useful to provide blank player hexmaps for use in these campaigns. I’ve included four varieties:
- Simple White. For easy printing and player note-taking/terrain mapping.
- Avernian Blank. The flat surface texture that I developed for Avernus. (You may find this version more useful when using a VTT because it has greater visual interest.)
- Avernian Mountains. This map includes the mountains, defining the edge of the hexcrawl for the players and reflecting, to some degree, the fact that the mountains can be seen from a great distance. This version also includes other decorative elements.
- Stygian. This includes both the mountains AND the River Styx. I don’t recommend using this one (charting the course of the Styx is probably better for the players to figure out), but some may find it useful.
For each of these map types, I have prepared a version both with Elturel /the Dock of Fallen Cities as a starting location and without.
In addition to these blank maps, the players should still be given the illustrative player map. The players will be cross-referencing between the two maps, trying to figure out exactly which hex each feature on their characters’ map is likely to be in (and exploring accordingly).
SIMPLE WHITE
AVERNIAN BLANK
AVERNIAN MOUNTAINS
STYGIAN
General update: I’m continuing work on the hex key. There are a dozen hexes left to key. Patrons of the Alexandrian are able to access the current working drafts on Patreon, but I’m hoping to start serializing the hex key some time this week if all goes well.
I’m curious about how this hexcrawl part of the campaign is going to be! I’m currently prepping a Greyhawk hexcrawl using Darlene’s map (11×15 hexes around the city). So far I’ve only ran an OD&D open-table hexcrawl crawl with 12-mile scale, following your guidelines (thanks!). Now the scale is bigger (30 miles) and it’s a regular campaign using 5e. Not sure how to stock and connect the contents of each hex at that scale for campaign play in order to advance the narrative.
Justin, the blank elurel overlay map isnt the same size as the all points me, my idea is to lay the two over and reveal portions as the players explore in a fantasy grounds map with a hex grid.