Go to Table of Contents

While exploring Avernus, the PCs have several opportunities to actually meet the crusaders who rode with Zariel into Hell itself.

At Haruman’s Hill they can speak with Jander Sunstar, the other crucified Hellriders who abandoned Zariel and their comrades, and Geneal Haruman himself.

At the Crypt of the Hellriders they can speak with the disembodied spirits of the crusaders who remained in Hell when the others fled. They can also meet General Olanthius.

And, of course, Yael herself will be met at the Bloody Cyst.

These encounters provide a really amazing opportunity for the PCs to interact with history. And if we’ve set things up correctly, the players will really feel that: Getting to meet Sunstar or Olanthius or Yael – after learning so much about them – will carry the same weight as meeting JFK or Cleopatra or Shakespeare.

To this end, I’ve prepped a basic NPC roleplaying template for each of the Hellriders, allowing us to run these encounters with easy confidence within the revised continuity of the Remix. The Key Info section for each Hellrider contains the key references for the Memory Revelations, but since the PCs will likely be interested in hearing their tale, I’ve tried to keep the Background sections as clear and straightforward (for easy reference) as possible.

JANDER SUNSTAR

Appearance: Impaled upon an iron tree, his pale skin is stained with a thin network of red and lurid veins. His dull-grey eyes are sunken pits of bruised crimson.

Roleplaying:

• His voice is wracked with eternal anguish.
• His arms are pinioned; his hands straining and palsied, their motion limited.
• He feels he deserves this punishment, possessing endless guilt for leading his Hellriders to this fate.

Background – Early History:

• Gold elf born on the island of Evermeet.
• Left Evermeet in search of adventure.
• 786 DR: Joined the armies of King Sarshel of Impiltur, serving under the three Paladin Princes (Essys, Araln, and Nord) as a knight of the Order of the Triad. In the Battle of the Moaning Gorge, Essys and Araln were killed, but the Impiltur forces defeated the armies of the balor Ndulu, driving both the demon and his horde back into the Abyss.
• 788 DR to 794 DR: Nord became king of Impiltur and begins the Harrowing of Nord, seeking to purge all the fiend-worshippers in the kingdom. Jander grew weary of the work and, with his friend Gideon (another knight of the Order of the Triad), left Impiltur and headed west into the Dalelands.
• 796 DR: In the Year of Grey Mists, Jander and Gideon become two members of the Silver Six and slay a red dragon in Merrydale. A few weeks later, the dale is plagued by a group of vampires. Two of the Silver Six are killed. In the same year, Merrydale is renamed Daggerdale.
• 798 DR: Jander is turned by the vampire lord Cassiar.
• 892 DR: Jander manages to slay Cassiar and escape from his influence.
• Early 10^th Century DR: Jander ends up in the Goblin Marches, where he falls in with a slave revolt led by Haruman, the Boy Warlord. Haruman eventually becomes the Lord Knight of the Far Hills, ruling a fiefdom out of Farkeep (the citadel which would later become known as Darkhold). Jander became a knight-banneret in his service.

Background – Zarielite Crusade:

• While questing to the west of Farkeep, Jander encountered Zarielite crusaders and learned of their cause. Moved by their grand desire to strike at the very heart of evil – something which seemed to echo with his own eternal struggle – he returned to Farkeep and converted Haruman to the cause.
• Jander rode to Elturel with Haruman, where the Lord Knight of the Far Hills pledged himself as the Third General of the Crusade, joining General Yael and Olanthius, Lord of Elturel.
• Under the command of the Zariel and the Three Generals, the cruaders marched to war against a demon lord named Yeenoghu outside a small town called Idyllglen. Jander was the commander of one of the cavalry wings.
• As the battle seemed to be drawing to a close, Yeenoghu captured General Yael and fled through a portal. Zariel, riding a golden hollyphant, led the army through the portal in pursuit, emerging onto the plains of Avernus.
• During the Battle of Avernus, while the Three Armies were engaged with Yeenoghu’s army, an army of devils approached. Jander panicked (“We can’t fight both Hell and the Abyss!”) and led a large chunk of the army back through the portal to Idyllglen. The portal then slammed shut behind them, leaving Zariel, Yael, Olanthius, Haruman, and most of the crusaders trapped in Hell. (Jander doesn’t know what caused the portal to close.)
• Jander was the highest ranking officer among the crusaders who had fled (and therefore survived) Avernus. The deserters became known as the Hellriders, their acts of infamy instead being told as deeds of glory.
• Jander became the first High Rider of Elturel. He changed the Riders’ heraldry from the twin stars of the Zarielite Crusade to a horse rampant in flames.

Background – Later Life:

• Sickened by his betrayal of both Zariel and Haruman, Jander felt he was living a lie. The dark blot of the vampiric curse on his soul grew larger and he was no longer able to fully control his need for human blood.
• Resigning his position, Jander left Elturel and resumed his long-delayed journey to the west, eventually ending up Waterdeep.
• In Waterdeep, he withdrew further and further from human society, eventually becoming a hermit living in a cave outside of town. He would occasionally come into town to “sip” from the inmates of Waterdeep’s asylum.
• During one of his feeding trips, he met a mad women named Anna and fell in love with her. He discovered that she had been cursed in a land called Barovia.
• After Anna’s death, Jander journeyed to Barovia to seek revenge against the one who had placed the curse of madness upon her. He eventually discovered that Anna was Tatyana, a woman who had been pursued by Count Strahd of Ravenloft, the ruler of Barovia.
• Although he attempted to end Strahd’s life, Jander failed. Finding peace with himself at long last, however, he climbed to a high cliff, prayed to Lathander, and waited for the sun to rise.
• … but he found no grace or forgiveness from Lathander. Upon his suicide, his soul was taken to Avernus. Reformed into the vampiric form he loathed in “life,” Jander was taken to Haruman’s Hill and crucified as an eternal punishment for his betrayal of the Archduchess Zariel during the Battle of Avernus.

Key Info:

• Jander was a Zarielite Crusader.
• The Three Generals were Yael, Olanthius, and Haruman.
• Jander betrayed Zariel during the Battle of Avernus, leading a chunk of the army back through the portal. The deserters became known as the Hellriders, cloaking themselves in false glory.

Design Note: Jander Sunstar first appears in Christie Golden’s Vampire of the Mists and various short stories. The continuity of those stories is impossible to bring into accord with the events described in Descent Into Avernus. Not only are the particular dates of the original story not internally consistent to begin with, but the sequence of events is fundamentally different: In the original stories, Jander serves as a Hellrider with Gideon, is later turned into a vampire, goes to Ravenloft, and then dies. In Descent Into Avernus, on the other hand, he becomes a vampire, goes to Ravenloft, apparently doesn’t die when he attempts suicide, serves as a Hellrider, and then commits suicide at some unspecified later date.

(The “doesn’t die” thing can actually be traced back to AD&D sourcebooks that apparently wanted to include a prominent character from the tie-in novels, but didn’t have any utility for a long-dead NPC. But most of the confusion once again maps back to the decision to move the Charge of the Hellriders to the 14^th century, as we’ve discussed previously.)

I’ve done my best here to weld the continuity back into something semi-coherent: You still have to basically ignore any specific dates given in Golden’s original stories, but the actual sequence of Jander’s life is now consistent through those stories. I’ve provided an alternative military campaign for Jander to meet Gideon during and also unified his suicide “attempts” so that everything leads up to the culmination of the original novel.

My goal is that – if your players have read the novel – the scene with Jander will be a really cool experience that builds on their existing knowledge of the character.

HARUMAN

Appearance: He wears armor formed from countless, curved plates of razor-sharp, black steel. From beneath the visor of his scythe-topped helm a pair of glowing red eyes glare out with baleful hatred.

Roleplaying:

• Does NOT like being referred to as a Hellrider. (He idiosyncratically associates that title with the traitors.)
• Taciturn to a fault. It takes effort to draw him out. (Appealing to his hatred for the crucified traitors is a particularly effective method, however.)
• When still or in conversation, keeps both hands clasped atop his claymore, held in front of him.

Background:

• Haruman was a slave in the Goblin Marches.
• When he was eleven, he killed his goblin overlord and initiated a slave revolt.
• He marched out of the Goblin Marches as the Boy Warlord, eventually conquering Farkeep (the citadel which would later become known as Darkhold) at the age of thirteen. He became known as the Lord Knight of the Far Hills.
• Zarielite Crusade: Eight years later, he learned from Jander Sunstar – a knight-banneret who had fought by his side during the slave revolt – of the Zarielite Crusade. Mustering his forces, he marched to Elturel and swore an oath of loyalty to Zariel and the Crusade. He joined Lady Yael and Lord Olanthius as one of the Three Generals.
• Battle of Idyllglen: He marched with the rest of the Crusade to Idyllglen when they learned it was being attacked by a demon lord named Yeenoghu. During the battle, Lady Yael was captured and carried through a portal by Yeenoghu. Zariel ordered a pursuit, and Haruman led his army through the portal.
• Battle of Avernus: The portal led to Avernus. The crusaders were doing well against Yeenoghu’s demon army when an army of devils approached. Jander Sunstar betrayed them, rode back through the portal to Idyllglen with hundreds of other cowards, and then sealed the portal behind him, trapping everyone else in Hell.
• Olanthius and Haruman were able to pincer the remnants of Yeenoghu’s army and finish them off, while Zariel and Yael wheeled her command about to meet the devil army. Yeenoghu escaped, but Zariel killed the devil general Terza’reg.
• Then a second devil army, this one under the command of Baalzephon, arrived.
• The Crusaders fought to the last man, but Olanthius and Haruman were among those captured. They were brought before Zariel, who had been transformed into a glorious devil. She told them that their battle against the Demons of the Abyss would continue; that Hell had granted her the power to continue their great work. And she asked them to join her.
• Haruman accepted and was transformed into a narzugon. Olanthius chose to commit suicide instead… but discovered that even in death he was bound to Zariel by the oaths they had sworn and was raised as a death knight to serve as her thrall.
• Zariel set for Haruman the task of punishing those who had betrayed them. It has been his driving obsession down through the centuries since then.
• The Reckoning: Haruman fought alongside Zariel during the Reckoning, laying siege to Dis, the great city which is the second layer of Hell. He was nearly killed when, near the end of the Reckoning, Tiamat betrayed Zariel and took her prisoner.
• The Rift War: Centuries later, Haruman was serving in the legions of Bel when the Rift gaped open and vomited forth a baatorian invasion that washed over the defenses of Avernus.
• When Zariel was released from Tiamat’s prison by Glasya, the daughter of Asmodeus, Haruman gathered the soldiers loyal to him and rode to join Zariel in her Second Avernian March: As Bel retreated (yet another traitorous coward!), they attacked.
• Zariel forded the Styx, sacked the war palaces that had been taken by the baatorians, and broke the baatorian supply lines. Then she turned around and marched back to the Styx, intercepting the baatorians’ main army as it was attempting to cross the river. During the Battle of Lost Memories, the baatorians’ strength was broken.
• Haruman took command of several watchposts along the Styx while Zariel marched to lay siege to the Rift itself. When the Rift fell, Zariel was made Archduchess of Avernus by Asmodeus’ decree. (A reward for her loyalty!)

Key Info:

• He resents that Olanthius (who tried to “forsake his duties” by committing suicide) has been given the honor of keeping watch on the Crypt of the Hellriders while he must serve as guardian over the eternal damnation of these traitors.
• Like Jander, Yael abandoned Zariel at the final hour. She is the great prize; and although she has so far managed to hide her soul from Haruman, he will some day bring her to justice. (False, but he believes it.)
• Haruman was present in Zariel’s court when the amnesiac Lulu was brought as a gift for the freshly crowned Archduchess of Avernus: He knows that Zariel believed Lulu had hidden the Sword of Zariel and she was angry that Lulu had lost her memories and could no longer reveal the secret of its hiding place.
• Haruman uses tales of his service with Zariel in the Reckoning and the Rift War as an example of what true loyalty looks like; and of the eternal glories which traitors like Sunstar gave up in their cowardice.
• If asked about why it’s the Second Avernian March, Haruman is familiar with the tale of Zariel’s First Avernian March: Long ago, before Avernus had become a part of Hell, Zariel was betrayed by her commanding officer, an angel named Chazaqiel. Zariel and a small band of angels loyal to Heaven broke away and began a long march across Avernus before finally escaping down the River Styx (which in those days followed a very different course through the Outer Planes).

OLANTHIUS

Appearance: A skeletal warrior in matte-black plate armor. Blue flames flicker in the sockets of his skull. He wears a tattered, azure cloak embroidered with faded golden thread in the symbol of twin suns.

Roleplaying:

• A sibilant, hissing voice is all that remains of a once commanding presence.
• Flames in his eyes flare when frustrated or angry. (But they dim when he thinks of Lady Yael.)
• He is bound by an oath to Zariel, and yet struggles against it eternally.

Background:

• Olanthius inherited his position as Lord of Elturel when it was yet a relatively small fiefdom, but he commanded a large order of knights who spread peace along the River Chionthar.
• Zarielite Crusade: Yael and Lulu came to Elturel to proselytize the Cruade. Olanthius was impressed with Yael’s courage and righteousness, and pledged his service to the Crusade. Elturel became the headquarters of the Crusade and Olanthius became one of the Three Generals.
• Olanthius and Lady Yael fell in love. They were never married… the work of the Crusade kept them too busy.
• Battle of Idyllglen: He marched with the rest of the Crusade to Idyllglen when they learned it was being attacked by a demon lord named Yeenoghu. During the battle, Lady Yael was captured and carried through a portal by Yeenoghu. Zariel ordered a pursuit, with Olanthius close on her heels.
• Battle of Avernus: The portal led to Avernus. Yael freed herself and fought her way to Olanthius’ side. The crusaders were doing well against Yeenoghu’s demon army when an army of devils approached. Some of Haruman’s soldiers betrayed them, fleeing back through the portal and then shutting it behind them.
• Olanthius and Haruman were able to pincer the remnants of Yeenoghu’s army and finish them off, while Zariel and Yael wheeled her command about to meet the devil army. Yeenoghu escaped, but Zariel killed the devil general Terza’reg.
• Then a second devil army, this one under the command of Baalzephon, arrived.
• The Crusaders fought to the last man, but Olanthius and Haruman were among those captured. They were brought before Zariel, who had been transformed into a glorious devil. She told them that their battle against the Demons of the Abyss would continue; that Hell had granted her the power to continue their great work. And she asked them to join her.
• Haruman accepted and was transformed into a narzugon. Olanthius chose to commit suicide instead… but discovered that even in death he was bound to Zariel by the oaths they had sworn and was raised as a death knight to serve as her thrall.
• Crypt of the Hellriders: Zariel tasked Olanthius with building a crypt for their fallen comrades and protect it. For long centuries that was the totality of his existence. When she became Archduchess, he became a minor member of her court.

Key Info:

• Haruman was one of the Three Generals. Unlike Olanthius, he willingly followed Zariel in swearing allegiance to Hell and became a devil. A once noble man, he is now bereft of compassion – obsessed with punishing anyone who has “betrayed” Zariel. He can oft be found at Haruman’s Hill.
• He doesn’t know Yael’s ultimate fate, although he knows Zariel asked Lulu to help her escape. (If it seems the PCs seek her, he will ask them to give his love to her if they were to somehow to succeed.)
• Olanthius is a member of Zariel’s court: He could lead them to her flying fortress and even potentially help them gain access to it.
• Olanthius would like to see Zariel dead (which would free him from his bondage), but would require considerable proof that an assassination attempt is plausible before being willing to assist it. (And he would struggle with his oath throughout.)
• Yael told Olanthius of the legends of Zariel’s first visit to Idyllglen: How the demonic lord Yeenoghu was leading a gnoll army and sacking settlements north of the Chionthar, and Zariel led a band of angels to put an end of to his depredations. Idyllglen raised a shrine to honor what Zariel had done for them, and it was in this shrine that Yael prayed for Zariel’s return when a marauding band of ogres led by a warlord named Irontusk threatened Idyllglen hundreds of years later. Zariel once again came, and that was the seed that began the entire Crusade.
• Yael used to tell him – tell them all, really – to “dream a little bigger.” (It’s what convinced him to join the Crusade.) But he hasn’t been able to dream for centuries now.

LADY YAEL

Appearance: The translucent image of a woman in her thirties wearing plate armor and bearing a thin scar on her cheek. She is surrounded by a soft, comforting glow of radiant energy.

Roleplaying:

• A kind smile; her warmth and charisma undimmed by death or the passing aeons.
• A soft and gentle voice, touched by an immense sadness.
• Very excited to see Lulu; an old friend she thought long dead.
• “You just need to dream a little bigger.”

Background:

• Yael was born in the village of Idyllglen. When she was a young woman in the 10^th century DR, Idyllglen’s existence was threatened by a marauding band of ogres led by a warlord named Irontusk.
• Yael organized the younger villagers into a defensive militia of sorts, but it wasn’t enough. She prayed in a shrine dedicated to Zariel – who had come to Idyllglen once centuries earlier and saved the village from a horde of gnolls led by the demon lord Yeenoghu – and asked for her help. Zariel answered the prayer, coming with Lulu
• Zariel, Lulu, and Yael became fast friends. With each challenge they faced, Yael would smile and say, “We just need to dream a little bigger.”
• The campaign lasted for several months, but they were ultimately successful.
• After Zariel left, Yael turned their militia into a regional peacekeeping force. (The ogres didn’t return, but there was a spot of trouble with trolls out of the Trollclaws. Mostly they secured the Winding Water settlements.)
• Zarielite Crusade: Several years later, Zariel returned. She had hatched a plan: Raise a mortal army in the Material Plane to invade the Abyss and create a second front in the Blood War. Yael’s response when she head the plans? “Aye. Let’s dream a little bigger.”
• The militia became the first Crusaders. They wore a badge with twin suns, representing Zariel and Lulu as their angelic saviors.
• Olanthius: Yael and Lulu went on a number of recruitment missions. Perhaps the most important proved to be to Lord Olanthius in Elturel. Olanthius became a convert and the Crusade moved its center of operations south to the city. Yael fell in love with the young lord, and he with her. (They were never married – the Crusade simply consumed too much of the time. Yael regrets that now and hopes that Olanthius’ spirit is at peace.)
• The Three Generals: Yael, Olanthius, and another lord named Haruman became the Three Generals.
• Battle of Idyllglen: Then Yeenoghu returned. They learned that the demon lord was attacking the settlements of the Winding Water. They rode north and intercepted his army at Idyllglen. During the battle, Yael was captured and carried through a portal by Yeenoghu. When she saw the Crusaders emerge through the portal behind them – with Zariel leading the charge – it was both the most relieved she had ever been, and also the most terrified. For she realized that Yeenoghu had laid a trap for them.
• Battle of Avernus: The portal led to Avernus. There were a number of glorious deeds that day, among them Yael freeing herself from captivity and fighting her way to Olanthius’ side.
• The crusaders were doing well against Yeenoghu’s demon army when an army of devils under the command Terza’reg approached. Jander Sunstar, one of Haruman’s knight-bannerets, panicked and led a rout of many of the knights back through the portal (which then shut behind them; Yael is certain it was Yeenoghu’s last cruel joke).
• The Final Fight: Olanthius and Haruman were able to pincer the remnants of Yeenoghu’s army and finish them off, while Zariel and Yael wheeled her command about to meet the devil army. Yeenoghu escaped, but Zariel killed the devil general Terza’reg.
• Zariel led the flying cavalry squadron (featuring primarily pegasi) into the air to meet the flying devils that swarmed over the battlefield.
• Zariel and Lulu engaged in an aerial duel with Terza’reg, which ended when Terza’reg cut off Zariel’s right hand (still clutching her sword). Zariel leapt off of Lulu and dove after sword and hand, with Terza’reg in hot pursuit. At the last possible moment, Zariel snatched her sword from the air, reversed her flight, and plunged it through Terza’reg’s breast. A huge explosion rocked the battlefield as the devil general died, clouding the affair in a haze of red dust.
• Despite her dreadful injury and the ensuing chaos, after Terza’reg’s death it was possible that Zariel and her generals might have been able to rally. But then a second army under the command of Baalzephon arrived.
• Zariel’s Final Request: Yael had joined Zariel and Lulu. As Baalzephon tightened the noose around their necks, the three old friends fought side by side. As the devils closed in, Zariel knew what would come and feared her own weakness. She took a shard of her angelic essence – a spark of goodness – and placed it within her sword. She asked Yael to take the sword and make certain it was not captured by the forces of Hell. Yael refused. Zariel smiled sadly. “Look beyond this forsaken day. One last time, I need you to dream a little bigger.”
• With tears in her eyes, Yael accepted.
• Zariel then turned to Lulu, said goodbye to her old friend, and asked her to go with Yael and keep her safe.
• The devils’ aerial forces had been decimated, and so Yael – having concealed the sword within her cloak – was able to escape through their depleted ranks upon Lulu’s back.
• Hiding the Sword: Yael and Lulu tried to escape Hell, but were intercepted at the Styx by Yeenoghu. They fled back into Avernus. With both demons and devils closing in on them, they realized that escape was impossible.
• Yael plunged the Sword of Zariel into a rock and called for divine intervention. Lulu poured her own celestial essence into the call, the sympathetic resonance of her trumpet echoing across the Avernian plains as she drove Yael’s plea across the outer planes. Even so, the gods could wield little power in Avernus, but Lathander gave them an opportunity. Yael sacrificed herself, pouring her life force into what Lathander offered, raising an alabaster fortress around the Sword to protect it.
• The skein of Avernus itself rebelled at this holy touch, however, and a bloody cyst engulfed the fortress, Yael’s corpse, and Lulu.

Key Info:

• Yael will be reticent until the PCs have proved their worthiness by claiming the Sword of Zariel.
• After that, with very little prompting, Yael will answer any questions that they have. (This may include relating her entire biography, above.) She will be able to fill in many of the holes the PCs might still be missing.
• She knows nothing of what happened after the Battle of Avernus and the formation of the Bloody Cyst, but she and Zariel spoke often of Zariel’s past, so you can similarly use Yael to fill any gaps in the PCs knowledge regarding Zariel’s past (the Averniad, her Long March across Avernus, the Trial of Asmodeus, etc.).

OTHER CRUSADERS / HELLRIDERS

Other Crusaders and/or Hellriders can generally fill the PCs in on a brief overview of the true history of the Crusade:

• Zariel and Lulu descended from the Heavens to lead a mortal army of the chosen faithful on a glorious crusade into the Abyss where they would turn the tide of the Blood War.
• Supporters swarmed to the Crusade from across the Sword Coast.
• Yael was the first of the Three Generals.
• Lord Olanthius of Elturel became a convert and invited the crusade to use the city as its staging ground.
• Haruman, Lord Knight of the Far Hills, rode to Elturel, pledged his service to Zariel, and became the Third General.
• The demon lord Yeenoghu led an army onto the Material Plane and the Crusaders fought him at the Battle of Idyllglen.
• The Crusaders pursued Yeenoghu through a portal which led them, inexplicably, to the plains of Avernus.
• Many of the crusaders panicked and fled back through the portal, closing it behind them and stranding the rest of the crusaders in Hell.
• The crusaders who remained bravely fought to the last man.

KEY INFO: They’ll all make a point of mentioning Zariel’s glowing sword.

• She was wearing it when they first saw her.
• She knighted them with it.
• She was wielding it in battle.
• It was the last thing they saw before riding back through the portal / dying on the field of battle.

CUSTOMIZING THE CRUSADERS: Every crusader is a unique individual and their story should reflect that.

• When did they join the Crusade? (Idyllglen before Zariel, after Zariel, one of Olanthius’ knights, one of Haruman’s knights, rode independently to Elturel)
• If they’re a Hellrider, how do they feel about fleeing Avernus? If they’re a crusader who didn’t flee, how do they feel about the Hellriders who did?
• Where and how did they die?
• Try to give them one unique anecdote associated with one of the key moments or characters discussed above. (For example, they were sent to protect Idyllglen from a phalanx of demonic warriors. Or they died at Zariel’s feet. Or they, too, were trying to flee through the portal, but it snapped shut just before they could pass through it.)

Go to Part 7: Exploring Avernus

This week’s Advanced Gamemastery takes a first look (and then a much closer look!) at what it’s like to run a sandbox campaign. I use a D&D-esque campaign as the example, but the lessons can be applied to almost any RPG.

This is the third installment in the series. I’ve been very humbled by everyone’s excitement to see more of these videos! While I know it’s a cliche, it remains true that subscriptions, likes, and comments make a big difference in helping the channel grow! You can help bring these videos to a wider audience by training the algorithm!

If you’d like to keep helping the channel, though, can you do one more thing for me? Share the video! Whether that’s just texting it to someone you think would love it or posting it to social media, that would be huge!

I’d also love to chat about sandbox campaigns.

What have been your best/worst sandbox experiences?

What sandbox campaign have you always wanted to run/play?

Good gaming! And I’ll see you at the table!

Subscribe Now!

The hexcrawl is a game structure for running wilderness exploration scenarios. Although it was initially a core component of the D&D experience, the hexcrawl slowly faded away. By 1989 there were only a few vestigial hex maps cropping up in products and none of them were actually designed for hexcrawl play. That’s when the 2^nd Edition of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons removed hexcrawling procedures from the rulebooks entirely.

It wasn’t until Necromancer Games brought the Wilderlands back into print and Ben Robbins’ West Marches campaign went viral that people started to rediscover the lost art of the hexcrawl. The format has returned to prominence in recent years through releases like the Kingmaker campaign for Pathfinder and Tomb of Annihilation for D&D 5^th Edition.

BASIC HEXCRAWL STRUCTURE

Hexcrawls are only one way of running wilderness travel (see Thinking About Wilderness Travel for some other options) and there are actually many different varieties of hexcrawls and schools of thought on how they should be designed or run. “True” hexcrawls, however, share four common features.

1. They use a hexmap. In general, the terrain of the hex is given as a visual reference and the hex is numbered (either directly or by a gridded cross-reference). Additional features like settlements, dungeons, rivers, roads, and polities are also often shown on the map.
2. Content is keyed to the hexmap. Using the numbered references, some or all of the hexes are keyed with locations and/or encounters.
3. Travel mechanics determine how far the PCs can move and where they move while traveling overland. After determining which hex the PCs are starting in, the GM will use these mechanics (and the decisions the players make) to track their movement.
4. When the PCs enter a hex, the GM will tell them the terrain type and determine whether or not the keyed content of the hexmap is triggered: If so, the PCs experience the event, encounter the monsters, or see the location. (There is often a 100% chance that the keyed content will be triggered.)

Around this basic structure you can build up a lot of additional features and alternative gameplay. For example, mechanics for random encounters and navigating (or, more importantly, getting lost in) trackless wastes are quite common. Hex-clearing procedures were once quite common, too, as an antecedent for stronghold-based play.

THE ALEXANDRIAN HEXCRAWL

In 2012, before 5^th Edition was released, I wrote Hexcrawls: This series discussed hexcrawl procedures and laid out a robust structure for prepping and running hexcrawls in both 3^rd Edition and the original 1974 edition of the game.

The Alexandrian Hexcrawl had several key design goals.

First, I wanted a structure that would hide the hexes from the players. In my personal playtesting, I found that the abstraction of the hex was extremely convenient on the GM’s side of the screen (for tracking navigation, keying encounters, and so forth), but had a negative impact on the other side of the screen: I wanted the players interacting with the game world, not with the abstraction. Therefore, the hexes in the Alexandrian Hexcrawl were a player-unknown structure.

Second, the structure was explicitly built for exploration. The structure, therefore, included a lot of rules for navigation, getting lost, and finding your way again. It was built around having the players constantly making new discoveries (even in places they’d been to before).

Third, the hex key features locations, not encounters. It’s not unusual to see hexcrawls in which encounters are keyed to a hex, like this one from the Wilderlands of the Magic Realm:

A charismatic musician sits on a rock entertaining a group of Halfling children. He sings songs of high adventure and fighting Orcs.

While the Alexandrian Hexcrawl system could be used with such keys, my intention was to focus the key on content that could be used more than once as PCs visit and re-visit the same areas. (This is particularly useful if you’re running an open game table.) In other words, the key is geography, not ephemera, with encounters being handled separately from the key.

Fourth, the system is built around the assumption that every hex is keyed. There may be rare exceptions — the occasional “empty” hex, for example — but if this is happening a lot it’s generally an indication that your hexcrawl is at the wrong scale. This tends to create two problems in actual play: First, it results in very poor pacing (with long spans of time in which navigational decisions are not resulting in interesting feedback in the form of content). Second, the lack of content equates to a lack of structure. One obvious example of this is that hexcrawls with vast spans of empty space lack sufficient landmarks in order to guide navigation.

(You run into similar problems if you have lots of densely packed hexes featuring multiple locations keyed to each hex: The abstraction of the hex stops working and your hexcrawl procedures collapse as the PCs engage in lots of sub-hex navigation.)

THE (MANY) RULES OF 5th EDITION WILDERNESS TRAVEL

Since the release of 5^th Edition, I have been frequently asked to update the Alexandrian Hexcrawl to the new system. Unfortunately, there have been a couple impediments making this more difficult than it might first appear.

First, 5^th Edition is not designed for hexcrawls. 3^rd Edition didn’t feature hexcrawl play, either, but its rules were fundamentally grounded in a mechanical tradition that had originally been designed to support hexcrawl play, and it was therefore fairly straightforward to graft those procedures back onto those mechanics.

5^th Edition, ironically, reintroduced hex-mapping to the core rulebooks, but mechanically trivializes or strips out essential mechanical elements that make hexcrawls (or, more generally, the challenges of wilderness exploration) work in actual play.

Second, the rules for overland travel and wilderness exploration in 5^th Edition are a little… fraught.

• The rules are scattered haphazardly throughout the rulebooks and difficult to pull together into any sort of cohesive procedure.
• The rules actually change from one book to the next: The exploration procedures and travel distances in Tomb of Annihilation, for example, are just slightly different from those in the core rulebooks for no apparent reason. And the ones in the Wilderness Kit are different once again.
• The rules are vague in bafflingly inconsistent ways. For example, there is a specific rule about how many pounds of food you need each day. And there’s a specific rule about how many pounds of food you get while doing the Forage activity while traveling. It seems like those would link up, but the rule for how often you make a Forage check is “when [the DM] decides it’s appropriate.” Which could be every hour, every day, every week, or literally anything else.
• Most of the wilderness rules are not actually found in the SRD, making them inaccessible for projects outside of the Dungeon Master’s Guild.

Although these factors have largely stymied my efforts in the past, I’ve decided to more or less embrace the vague chaos of it all: If there is no coherent set of rules in the first place, then no one will probably care if I change them.

So my final design goal is to maintain the large, macro structures of 5^th Edition wilderness travel that tie into other elements of the game – like how various classes modify your travel pace, for example – but otherwise tweak and change whatever needs to be altered to make things work.

Go to Part 2: Wilderness Travel

5E HEXCRAWLS
Part 2: Wilderness Travel
Part 3: Watch Actions
Part 4: Navigation
Part 5: Encounters
Part 6: Watch Checklists
Part 7: Hex Exploration
Part 8: Cheat Sheet

Hexcrawl Running Sheets

Hexcrawl Tool: Rumor Tables
Hexcrawl Tool: Spot Distances
Hexcrawl Tool: Tracks

HEXCRAWL ADDENDUMS
Sketchy Hexcrawls
Designing the Hexcrawl
Running the Hexcrawl
Connecting Your Hexes
Special Encounter Tables
Describing Travel
The Layered Hexcrawl

Character creation in Over the Edge is hyper-fast. It’s so fast, in fact, that you can trivially do it with brand new players as part of a four-hour one-shot.

Character Concept: Virtually any character concept is possible in Over the Edge, but there are a few core principles that your concept should honor.

• They Are Human. They might be mutants, metahumans, prodigies, freaks, or ghosts. But they are fundamentally human.
• They Follow “Hollywood” Reality. Hollywood lies about how the world really works for all the right reasons, and you should, too.
• They Are Not Played Straight. If your character is a common archetype, give it one weird twist: Not just a vampire, but a recovering vampire. Or a vampire who drinks human tears. Or is addicted to sunlight.
• They Don’t Wreck Plots. Your character does not grant wishes, read minds, mind-control people, see the future, stop time, or otherwise trivially wreck plots.

Main Trait & Side Trait: Your character has a main trait and a side trait. You’ve probably already unwittingly picked them with your character concept.

• Traits are not mechanically predefined things. They’re not picked from a skill list. They’re not feats. They’re not classes or archetypes. You make them up.
• The difference between main traits and side traits is that main traits are broadly interpreted and side traits are narrowly interpreted. For example, if your side trait is MMA Fighter then you’re really good at fighting. But if it’s your main trait, then you’re also good at working the crowd, dealing with publicity, knowing other fight performers, sizing people up, etc.

Level: Generally speaking, beginning characters will be Level 2.

Trouble: Your character’s Trouble is what lures or provokes them into doing unwise things from the perspective of the game world that are constructive or exciting for the players. It’s your excuse to do things that are fun instead of pragmatic. For example, you might listen to an imaginary friend. Or brag and say too much. Or take risks to help an innocent in danger.

Question Mark: This is the best part. An adjective or short phrase that describes a major truth about your character’s reputation or personal identity.

• They should not be capabilities (like Persuasive-? or Intimidating-?). Your traits describe your capabilities.
• Generally speaking, the question mark does NOT imply that this is something your character is uncertain or wishy-washy about. It is usually fundamentally true. The function of the Question Mark is to telegraph on the meta level that this fundamentally true thing might STOP being fundamentally true during play. For example, a Priest who is Faithful-? isn’t necessarily fully of doubt at the beginning of the game; but her player is saying that something might cause them to question their faith during the game.
• It’s usually best not to name in advance what will trigger the Question Mark: We want to discover that during play.

A good example of this is Indiana Jones: He’s Brave-? Totally brave. All the time. Until we discover, in play, that he’s terrified of snakes.

Tells: Tells are observable details the correlate to your characteristics. For example, a character with the Linebacker trait is… built like a linebacker. The Semi-Feral Brawler sniffs new people they meet. The Hacker is always wearing AR glasses.

• You assign tells for your Main Trait, Side Trait, Trouble, and Question Mark.

Group Questions: You wrap up character creation with a round of group questions. Every player should ask one question of another player & every player should also be asked a question about their character.

• Open Questions are the gentlest. (e.g., What hobbies, arts, activities, or interests does your character pursue?)
• Leading Questions put the character’s identity under another player’s influence. (e.g., What caused you to suddenly stop painting?)
• Really Leading Questions push hard. (e.g., How do you keep your superiors at the Church from finding out about your sex tourism habits?)

A player is always free to refuse a leading question or to reject the premise and answer it however they like.

And that’s it! Because it involves more open-ended creativity, it doesn’t quite work like Character Creation in 5 Sentences for D&D or Character Creation in 7 Sentences for Magical Kitties Save the Day, but it’s very similar in practice. I can usually get a whole table up and running with new characters in just 15-20 minutes, which usually also includes introducing them to the rules.

REAL CHARACTERS

Because character creation is so quick, I’ve done it A LOT over the past couple of years. I thought it might be fun to share some of these characters from actual play as an example of the sort of crazed creativity the setting and system of Over the Edge inspires. Because of the nature of the game, these are also fully functional pregenerated characters: Just add a starting Level and a round of Group Questions and you’re good to go!

JOJO

• Main Trait: Asasssin
• Side Trait: Ex-Circus Clown
• Trouble: Imagines his own personal soundtrack (and is heavily influenced by it).
• Bloodthirsty-?

I0

• Main Trait: Zen Coder
• Side Trait: Martial Artist
• Trouble: Locks are a challenge, not a statement.
• Structured-?

KEN

• Main Trait: Ex-SWAT
• Side Trait: Youtube Conspiracy Master
• Trouble: The Truth Is Out There
• Self-Confident-?

LODGE

• Main Trait: Spiritual Lodge (channels entities)
• Side Trait: Intermittently Institutionalized
• Trouble: Follows old souls.
• Mercurial-?

LADY

• Main Trait: Anger
• Side Trait: Zombie
• Trouble: Impulsive
• Trusting-?

ED SIMS

• Main Trait: Drifter
• Side Trait: Bad Luck
• Trouble: Enjoys upsetting bigger men.
• Honest-?

DR. ED SEXY

• Main Trait: Sexual Healing
• Side Trait: Kinkomancy
• Trouble: I listen to my dick.
• Likable-?

THE BIG DUDE

• Main Trait: Meta-Tourist
• Side Trait: Elementary School Teacher
• Trouble: Talks down to people.
• Innocent-?

JONATHAN TWEET

• Main Trait: Immortality
• Side Trait: Telling Aloofness
• Trouble: Turns the page.
• All-Knowing-?

(Yes, someone decided to play the designer of the RPG that they were playing. That’s the kind of crazy awesomeness that Over the Edge inspires.)

REE REYES

• Main Trait: Geekomancer
• Side Trait: Barista
• Trouble: Protective of their friends.
• Confident-?

SISTER PROMISE

• Main Trait: Inspirational Nun
• Side Trait: Sees what others cannot
• Trouble: Compelled to help the faithless.
• Selfless-?

RICK LEE

• Main Trait: Accidental Boddhisatva
• Side Trait: Successful Business Consultant
• Trouble: Existentially inquisitive.
• Determined-?

“SLOW HAND” LUKE

• Main Trait: Slow Gunslinger
• Side Trait: Animal Lover
• Trouble: 100% White Hat
• Confident-?

JERRY

• Main Trait: Assembled Man
• Side Trait: Well Read
• Trouble: Can’t Die
• Holding It Together-?

BOOKER

• Main Trait: Noir Detective
• Side Trait: Optimistic
• Trouble: Can’t say no to someone’s face.
• Straight-Edged-?

NEVAEH

• Main Trait: Socialite
• Side Trait: Insect Talking (But Not Wasps)
• Trouble: Can’t Resist Dirt
• Ruthless-?

LITA

• Main Trait: Con Artist
• Side Trait: Ghost
• Trouble: Vengeance
• Greedy-?

GARAMOND

• Main Trait: Crime Boss
• Side Trait: Exotic Artifact Collector
• Trouble: Collection Builder
• Former Criminal-?

EMERIC RAI

• Main Trait: Erotic Chef
• Side Trait: Knife Skills
• Trouble: Seeking ingredients
• Overconfident-?

MINOR TOM

• Main Trait: Astronaut
• Side Trait: Cosmic Abilities
• Trouble: No short term memory
• Expert-?

MORE OVER THE EDGE @ THE ALEXANDRIAN
Over the Edge: System Cheat Sheet
Over the Edge: One Weird Twist
Design Notes: Scenario Hooks for Over the Edge
Design Notes: Scenario Tools
Behind the Scenes: Welcome to the Island

The second Advanced Gamemastery video has been released! The Goblin Ampersand is a simple technique that you can use to supercharge the concept for any RPG scenario!

I talked about this a bit last week, but while our first video dived into the venerable concept of the Three Clue Rule, I wanted the second video in the series to present something completely new that hasn’t been seen on the Alexandrian before. In the long-term, the series will be a balance of these elements: Presenting the fundamentals of game mastering in new ways and to a new audience, but also diving into entirely new tips and tricks! And many videos will be a blend of both. Next week, for example, I’m hoping to combine a new introduction to sandbox campaigns with a few insights that will be very familiar to long-time readers of the Alexandrian!

Last week I also talked about how important it is for a new Youtube channel to have engagement with its videos: Subscriptions, likes, comments. I was overwhelmed by the outpouring of support! Thank you all so much for supporting me and the Alexandrian! And I’d really appreciate it if you’d do it again for our second video. Train the Youtube algorithm so that it knows how much you care about the Alexandrian and the algorithm will help introduce these ideas to an even wider audience!

Good gaming! And I’ll see you at the table!

Subscribe Now!