There are two places where tracks (along with the associated concept of tracking) can be found in the Alexandrian Hexcrawl: First, there is the Tracker watch action, in which characters can actively search for and follow tracks.

Second, the encounter system is designed to generate random encounters, lairs, and tracks.

Random encounters provide immediate obstacles and interludes while traveling, lairs spontaneously generate new locations in the hexcrawl (organically building up material along well-traveled routes as the campaign develops), and tracks are a trail that can be followed to a point of interest.

Thinking in terms of “tracks” seem to commonly conjure up the image of hoof prints in the sod, but we shouldn’t limit ourselves to that. In the wilderness exploration of the hexcrawl that sort of physical spoor is most likely very common, but the concept of “tracks” can really be generalized to “clue.”

For example, if we generated a result of “tracks” for bandits, that might mean footprints in the forest. But it could just as easily include a merchant caravan in panicked disarray due to their latest highway robbery; the dead body of a bandit that was critically wounded and abandoned; a bolt-hole containing documents implicating the mayor of a local village in collusion with the bandits; and so forth.

TYPES OF TRACKS

Spoor: What can be thought of as the “classic” tracks we commonly think of. This includes both physical prints and scents (particularly if you have a hound for a familiar or live life as a werewolf). Following a spoor path usually also means looking for and encountering other signs (like broken foliage) that are described below.

Spoor paths can include trails, which are paths used frequently repeatedly by a create. The common image here is the worn rut of a deer or fox path. Runs are similar to trails, but are less frequently used.

Subsurface trails are tunnels. In the real world, trackers frequently look for where small tunnels re-emerge (and will use the diameter of tunnels to identify creatures). In a fantasy world, it’s quite possible the tunnel will be more than large enough for adventurers to follow the spoor path right inside. (Tunnels created by one creature may also be used by other creatures.)

Sounds: The howl of a wolf, the roar of a dragon, the screech of a griffon, or the distant sound of a fireball exploding. Sounds emanating from nearby can be used as an encounter trigger, but distant sounds can (often ominously) indicate the presence (and direction) of creatures.

Smells: The zombie stench of putrefacting flesh, the lingering ozone odor of a beholder’s rays, the sulfurous stench of a hell hound, or the distinctive musk of more mundane creatures can linger in the air long after they have passed.

Moulting: Anything shed by a creature, such as feathers and fur. This can also include skin (like a snake) or an exoskeleton (like a crab, spider, or insect). Some lizards will actually lose their entire tails (a process known as “caudal autotomy”) in order to evade predators, and you could imagine similarly fantastical abilities. Perhaps there are creatures which, when threatened, will spontaneously generate a cloned copy of their “corpse” and leave it behind to slowly decompose into ectoplasmic residue.

Other creatures use parts of their bodies as weapons, which could be left behind in their victims or embedded in the environment, like the spines of a barbed devil being left in a tree.

On a similar theme, there might be body parts lost by animals due to hazard rather than nature (like a dismembered limb or pool of blood).

Food: This might include food that’s been stored (whether squirrels hiding nuts or a cache of the local rangers), but is probably more commonly partially consumed meals. This can include carcasses (including human corpses depending on which predators are active in the area), but also plants or area of foliage which have been grazed by herbivores.

Also consider pellets, which are masses regurgitated by hawks and the like. These include trace remnants of food, but are primarily made up of indigestible remnants from their meals (bones, exoskeletons, fur, feathers, bills, teeth, etc.).

Fewmets: The other end of the digestive track, specifically scat and excrement. Urine is also an option. Don’t be afraid to embrace the fantastical here, ranging from the well-known scale of triceratops poop to, say, the scorching phosphorescence of hell hound pee.

Kill Sites: This includes carcasses, but may just be signs (like blood spatter) left from a kill which a predator later dragged from the site (or consumed whole). This category is also worth calling out specifically because far more dramatic kill sites are frequently left by intelligent creatures (victims of goblin raiders or the rotting corpses left by poachers).

Glyphs: Intentional markings left by intelligent creatures. These might include navigational signs carved into trees, strange runic carvings, odd fetish sculptures, demonic graffiti, or simply a discarded note.

Sleeping Areas: Many sleeping areas will actually be generated as lairs, but there are also transit beds and lays, which are used as less frequent or irregular resting areas. For animals, this often takes the form of crushed vegetation. Intelligent creatures may leave a wide variety of signs (remnants of a campfire, a latrine, discarded food remnants, miscellaneous refuse, etc.).

Marring: The activities of beasts and monsters will often damage or leave their mark on the natural environment. Rubs are produced by an animal rubbing against trees or rocks. Gnaws and chews can give clear indication of the size of a creature’s teeth. (You might similarly find a place where intelligent creatures were practicing with their weapons or using a machete to chop through thick overgrowth.) Scratchings can be both intentional (sharpening your claws or digging for grubs) and unintentional (signs left from climbing or scampering over terrain).

In the realm of fantasy we might add to this things like burns (fire or acid), phase marks (distinct traces left by incorporeal creatures passing through physical objects), ectoplasm, and the like.

Tip: When imagining tracks and other signs, don’t get fixated on the ground. Remember verticality! In the real world, woodpeckers drill in trees above your head. In fantasy, bloated stirges can leave smears of blood up there, too.

SCALE OF TRACKS

Something else to consider is that tracks can vary from the obvious to the almost impossibly obscure. You can use this to provide varied flavor to tracking sequences, or to reward particularly good Wisdom (Perception) or Wisdom (Survival) checks.

Large scale tracks are significant and obvious. You might not automatically notice them, but even untrained people will likely recognize clear pawprints in mud, well-worn trails, significant damage to foliage, big animal carcasses, and the like.

Medium scale tracks are perhaps the most common (being left almost constantly by anyone or anything not intentionally covering their tracks), but are more difficult to notice or may only be significant to those with training. This can be stuff like gnaws and chews, pellets, and subtle vegetation breaks. It can also include more obvious tracks which have been obscured by the passage of time.

Small scale tracks usually require a sharp eye, special training, or both. They include many of the same signs as previous categories, but are subtler, sometimes as the result of extreme age. These are faint pawprints on hard ground, a handful of partially buried bones left from a months-old kill, or an orcish arrowhead buried deep in a tree trunk.

Ghost scale tracks almost certainly require training and experience to spot and interpret. They also frequently disappear quickly. This can include dullings (in which a creature passing through the morning dew leaves a “dull” area by brushing the water off foliage), shinings (later in the day, creatures walking through the grass press it down, revealing its shiny side), and other incredibly subtle tracks (like leaf depressions).

Back to 5E Hexcrawls

Go to Part 1

As we discussed in Part 2, this system is designed to be modular, including a large number of advanced rules and supplemental tools that can be optionally used or discarded depending on your personal taste and the specific needs of a particular hexcrawl.

When you’ve decided which options you want to use, you’ll want to create a clean resolution sequence to make running the hexcrawl at the table silky smooth.

Below you’ll find three examples of such resolution sequences: one for an ultra-stripped down version of the rules, a basic version with all four modules implemented in a basic form, and a third loaded up with a lot (but not all) of the bells and whistles. (Not all of the optional rules are compatible with each other, so it’s not possible to have a version with everything we’ve laid out.)

BASIC HEXCRAWL PROCEDURE

During each watch, do the following:

1. DETERMINE THE DIRECTION OF TRAVEL. Ask the players what direction they want to travel.

2. ENCOUNTER CHECK. Roll 1d12. On a roll of 1, roll on the wandering encounter table. On a roll of 12, the location keyed to the hex has been encountered.

3. HEX PROGRESS. The characters move 12 miles per watch, or 6 miles in difficult terrain.

• It takes 12 miles of progress to exit one of the hex’s 3 far faces.
• It takes 6 miles of progress to exit one of the hex’s 2 near faces.
• Changing direction within a hex will result in the loss of 2 miles of progress.
• If characters double back, reduce progress until they exit the hex. If they leave the hex by any other route, it requires an additional 1d6-1 miles of progress to exit the hex.

LEAVING A HEX. Determine the new hex (based on direction of travel) and reset progress.

FULL HEXCRAWL PROCEDURE

1. DIRECTION & TRAVEL PACE.

• Determine the expedition’s navigator.
• Navigator determines intended direction and travel pace.

2. ENCOUNTER CHECK. Roll 1d12. On a roll of 12, the location keyed to the hex has been encountered. On a roll of 1:

• If in a border hex, check to see which encounter table should be used.
• Roll on the wandering encounter table.
• Check % Tracks.
• Check % Lair.
• If it’s a wandering encounter or lair, make an encounter reaction check.

3. WATCH ACTIONS. Resolve all watch actions.

4. ARE THEY LOST?

• If they are not following a landmark or trail, make a Navigation check.
• If they are lost, determine veer. If they are already lost, veer can be increased but not decreased.

5. HEX PROGRESS

• It takes 12 miles of progress to exit one of the hex’s 3 far faces.
• It takes 6 miles of progress to exit one of the hex’s 2 near faces.
• Changing direction within a hex will result in the loss of 2 miles of progress.
• If characters double back, reduce progress until they exit the hex. If they leave the hex by any other route, it requires an additional 1d6-1 miles of progress to exit the hex.

LEAVING A HEX:

• Determine new hex (by applying current veer to the expedition’s direction of travel).
• If they were lost, make a Navigation check to see if they recognize it. If they do, they can attempt to reorient. If they do not, veer accumulates. (Note: Using a compass automatically resets veer at the hex border even if they don’t recognize they were off course.)

ADVANCED HEXCRAWL PROCEDURE

1. DIRECTION & TRAVEL PACE.

• Determine the expedition’s navigator.
• Navigator determines intended direction and travel pace.
• Modify expedition’s speed by terrain and travel conditions.

2. ENCOUNTER CHECK. Roll 1d8. On a roll of 1, roll on the wandering encounter table. On a roll of 8, the location keyed to the hex has been encountered.

3. WATCH ACTIONS. Resolve all watch actions.

4. ARE THEY LOST?

• If they are not following a landmark or trail, make a Navigation check.
• If they are lost, determine veer. If they are already lost, veer can be increased but not decreased.

5. DETERMINE ACTUAL DISTANCE TRAVELED

• Roll 2d6+3 x 10% x Average Distance.
• Make a Wisdom (Survival) check to see if they accurately estimated their distance traveled.
• TIP: If their progress would cause them to leave a hex during a watch and that would cause their terrain type to change, calculate progress by hour. When they reach the hex edge, note how many hours are left. Then you can reference the new hex, calculate the new average distance, and continue marking progress.

6. HEX PROGRESS

• It takes 12 miles of progress to exit one of the hex’s 3 far faces.
• It takes 6 miles of progress to exit one of the hex’s 2 near faces.
• Changing direction within a hex will result in the loss of 2 miles of progress.
• If characters double back, reduce progress until they exit the hex. If they leave the hex by any other route, it requires an additional 1d6-1 miles of progress to exit the hex.

LEAVING A HEX:

• Determine new hex (by applying current veer to the expedition’s direction of travel).
• If they were lost, make a Navigation check to see if they recognize it. If they do, they can attempt to reorient. If they do not, veer accumulates. (Note: Using a compass automatically resets veer at the hex border even if they don’t recognize they were off course.)

Go to Part 7: Hex Exploration

Go to Part 1

To check for encounters, roll 1d12 once per watch.

A roll of 1 indicates that an encounter should be rolled on the hexcrawl’s wandering encounter table.

A roll of 12 indicates that the characters have encountered a keyed location within the hex as an exploration encounter. Most hexes only have a single keyed location. For hexes with multiple keyed locations, determine the location encountered randomly.

Playtest Tip: It’s often effective to do an encounter check for all of the watches in a day simultaneously by rolling 6d12. (See Fistfuls of Dice for tips on interpreting simultaneous dice rolls.)

Exploration Encounter: Exploration encounters only occur during watches in which the characters are traveling or otherwise exploring an area. They do not occur during watches in which the characters are resting or otherwise stationary.

Wandering Encounter: A wandering encounter can occur during any watch. (They are usually creatures, whose movement can bring them into contact with the expedition regardless of whether the expedition is on the move or not.)

Note: See Hexcrawl Tool: Spot Distances for guidelines on the distance at which initial Wisdom (Perception) and Dexterity (Stealth) checks should be resolved.

ADVANCED RULE: ENCOUNTER CHANCE

You can vary the probability of having an encounter. The table below shows the probability per watch of different encounter checks and also the chance per day that there will be at least one encounter.

You also need to determine whether or not a keyed location has been encountered. This can be done in one of three ways:

• Determine it on the same encounter die. (The probability does not have to match the probability of a location encounter. For example, you might roll 1d8, triggering a wandering encounter on a roll of 1 or 2 and triggering a location encounter on a roll of 8.)
• Roll a separate encounter die. (This can have the advantage of simultaneously triggering both an encounter and the keyed location, suggesting that the encounter might happen at the location.)
• Roll a single encounter check and then check to see if that encounter is the keyed location. (You might build this onto the random encounter table – i.e., results 1-10 on a d20 table might be for the keyed location while 11-20 have the wandering encounters. However, this can make it difficult to modify the encounter table or use different encounter tables while keeping the probability of finding locations consistent.)

Note that if you’re using some of the advanced rules below that interpret certain wandering encounters as exploration encounters, these will effectively reduce the odds of an encounter happening.

ADVANCED RULE: LOCATION PROPERTIES

Keyed locations may have optional properties that determine how and when they’re encountered.

On Road/River/Trail: The location is on a road, river, or trail. Expeditions traveling along the road, river, or trail will automatically encounter the location (unless it’s hidden, see below). Expeditions avoiding the road, river, or trail will usually not encounter the location.

Visible: The location is large enough or tall enough to be seen anywhere within the hex. Expeditions entering the hex automatically spot the location. If a rating is given (e.g., Visible 2), then the location can be seen from that many hexes away.

Hidden: The location is difficult to spot. When this encounter is generated, make a second encounter check. If an encounter is not indicated on the second check, the location has not actually been found. (If the expedition is in exploration mode, they may instead make a Wisdom (Perception) or Intelligence (Investigation) check to locate a hidden location after the first encounter check.)

ADVANCED RULE: % LAIR

The percentage listed is the chance that a creature encountered as a wandering encounter is instead encountered in their lair. If the creature is encountered in their lair, the encounter is considered an exploration encounter.

Note: This check functionally generates a new location for the current hex (the lair of the indicated creature type). Over time and thru play, therefore, this encounter system will continue to add new content to your hex key (helping to fill the vast, howling emptiness of a typical hex). The more time the PCs spend in a particular area, the more content will be added to that area.

ADVANCED RULE: % TRACKS

The percentage listed is the chance that a creature’s tracks are encountered (and not the creature itself). Tracks are only found as an exploration encounter.

The tracks may be followed using the Tracker watch action. Tracks are usually 1d10 days old. DMs can determine where the tracks lead (although they’ll usually circle back to the creature’s lair in both directions). See Hexcrawl Tool: Tracks for additional guidance.

Note: When generating a wandering encounter, check to see if the encounter is tracks. If it is not, then check to see if it’s a lair. If it is not, then it’s a wandering encounter. Once again, notice that these additional checks will substantially reduce the odds of a night time encounter (when the party is not on the move).

ADVANCED RULE: BORDER ENCOUNTERS

This percentage, which is listed for either a region or a specific hex (or set of hexes), is the chance in a hex bordering on a different region that the wandering encounter should be rolled on that region’s encounter tables.

This rule is obviously only relevant if you have different wandering encounter tables customized for each region.

ADVANCED RULE: ENCOUNTER REACTION CHECK

To randomly determine a creature’s initial reaction to an encounter, roll 2d6 on the following table.

Obviously, the roll is not necessary if you already know the creature’s attitude. After the initial interaction, assuming hostilities don’t immediately break out, you can use Charisma checks to determine if the creature’s attitude improves, worsens, or stays roughly the same.

Note: The outcome of the reaction table is deliberately vague. This is necessary because it can be applied to a wide variety of intelligent, semi-intelligent, and unintelligent creatures, but it’s also expected that the DM will use their creativity and knowledge of the setting to make the general result something specific. A Hostile encounter, for example, might be a group of starving wolves; slavers looking to capture the PCs; or a group of paladins who mistakenly think the PCs are the slavers.

ADVANCED RULE: SIMULTANEOUS ENCOUNTERS

It can be desirable for your encounter procedures to potentially generate multiple encounters in the same watch:

• It creates uncertainty for the players. (They can’t simply assume that they won’t experience another encounter in the current watch because they’ve already had one.)
• It can create a dynamic fluctuation in difficulty.
• The combination of multiple encounters into a single encounter can create lots of different encounters from a relatively simple encounter table. (Are the two encounters allies? In conflict with each other? Is one encounter drawn to the sounds of the PCs dealing with the other encounter? If you generate one encounter at the lair of a different encounter, what are they doing there? And so forth.)

There a few methods you can use for achieving this:

• Make multiple checks per watch.
• On a successful encounter check, immediately make a second encounter check. (You can repeat this again if the second encounter check is successful, potentially putting no limit to the number of encounters possible in a single watch.)
• Incorporate a “Roll Again Twice” or similar entry on your wandering encounter table.

Each method has its own advantages and disadvantages.

Note: I, personally, check for a second encounter when the first encounter is successful. This second encounter check might indicate the keyed location of the hex, placing the first encounter there.

ADVANCED RULE: CIRCUMSTANCE DIE

The circumstances of an encounter will be informed by the terrain type, time of day, spot distance, watch actions, and so forth. (Generating an encounter with eight kenku at night while the expedition is resting on the open plains suggests a very different encounter than one with eight kenku in the middle of the day in a dark forest.)

When a particular condition is either pervasive in a region or important to the campaign (but should not be present in every single encounter), a circumstance die can be used to randomly incorporate it.

Examples could include:

• An Icewind Dale campaign in which there’s a 2 in 6 chance for an encounter to occur during blizzard conditions.
• A 1 in 4 chance that the demon trapped in a cage formed from one of the PCs’ souls attempts to assert control.
• A 1 in 6 chance that the encounter is being watched by a strange, shadowy figure with glowing red eyes.
• A 1 in 6 chance that the creatures encountered belong to or are working for the Countess Remorzstan (with appropriate brands or work papers).
• A 1 in 8 chance that the encounter occurs near an outcropping of glowing purple crystals.

Some such conditions might, under other circumstances, be generated through other procedures. (For example, blizzards might be generated through a random weather table.)

EXAMPLE: SAMPLE ENCOUNTER TABLES

Location Check: 1 in 1d6

Encounter Check: 1 in 1d10

Border Encounter: 1 in 1d20

Note: I indicate hexes which are already keyed as potential lairs for this creature type. This can inform the nature of wandering encounters and/or suggest a potential origin/terminus for tracks.

This table uses several advanced rules. When rolling an encounter, I would simultaneously roll a 1d6, 1d10, and 1d20 for each watch.

If the 1d6 result is a 1 (indicating a location encounter), it would indicate that the PCs have found the keyed location in the hex. If I’m not using simultaneous encounters, I would then ignore the other dice rolls (the location check “overrides” them; you could also just roll the 1d6, then the 1d10, then the 1d20, but that’s not necessary and is more time-consuming).

If the 1d10 check indicates an encounter, then you’d check the 1d20 roll to see which encounter table you should be rolling on. (You could also theoretically roll 2d20 of different colors, allowing you to immediately identify what type of encounter.)

With an encounter identified, you would then check % Lair, % Tracks, and # Appearing (although you don’t need to check for tracks if a lair encounter is indicated). Lairs and tracks are also exploration encounters, so if those are indicated when the party is resting, you can treat the encounter check as having no result and the watch passes quietly.

This is, of course, a fairly complicated example featuring a lot of the advanced rules all being used simultaneously. For a much simpler resolution you could just roll 1d12 (1 = wandering encounter, 12 = location encounter), roll 1d20 on the wandering encounter table (if a wandering encounter is indicated), and then the number of creatures appearing.

DESIGN NOTE: PROCEDURAL vs. DESIGNED ENCOUNTERS

A procedural encounter will usually generate one or more general elements. (For example, 1d6 friendly orcs.) As described in Breathing Life Into the Wandering Monster, the expectation is that the DM will contextualize this encounter. In other words, the procedural encounter is an improv prompt for the DM to create the encounter (often combined with a simulationist element of modeling, for example, what kinds of monsters lurk in the Darkovian Woods).

A designed encounter, on the other hand, is far more specific: You’re essentially prepping the material that you would improvise with a procedural encounter.

The Principles of Smart Prep maintain that you generally shouldn’t prep material that can be just as easily improvised at the table, so generally speaking I would describe most designed encounters as being training wheels for DMs who aren’t confident improvising encounters from procedural prompts yet. (There can be a number of exceptions to this, but they’re pretty rare in actual practice, in my experience.)

In other words, designed encounter tables typically result in a lot of wasted prep. They also get used up (a procedural encounter can be used over and over and over again to varying results; a designed encounter is specific and generally can’t be repeated). This creates gaps in your encounter table and a need to frequently restock them.

(Procedural-based encounter tables will also need to be tweaked or restocked from time to time – if the PCs wipe out the goblin village, it may result in no further encounters with goblins – but this is very rare in comparison.)

DESIGN NOTE: SETTING LAIR/TRACK PERCENTAGES

In designing your encounter tables, the % Lair and % Tracks values can be set arbitrarily. For a quick rule of thumb, use Lair 20% (or Nil for animals that don’t really have lairs) and Tracks 40%.

Older editions actually included values for one or both of these stats in their monster entries, so for some creatures you may be able to reference those older resources.

A gamist tip here is to increase the % Tracks value based on difficulty: If there’s a monster that’s a lot more powerful than everything else in the region, crank up the % Tracks so that the PCs are more likely to become aware that it’s there than they are to run into it blindly.

A simulationist tip is to vary both numbers by a sense of the creature’s behavior. Here’s an easy example: How likely is a flying creature to leave tracks compared to a woolly mammoth? (See Hexcrawl Tool: Tracks for thoughts on what types of tracks a flying creature would leave.) You can also think about how much time a creature spends in its lair and use that as a guideline. (They spend about half the day in their lair? 50%.)

A dramatist tip is to think about how interesting each type of encounter is for each creature type. Is a ghoul lair more interesting than running into a pack of ghouls in the wild? If so, crank up the ghoul’s % Lair.

The last thing to consider is that, as noted above, a Lair encounter will generally add a new location to the current hex. The higher you set the % Lair values on your encounter tables, the more often this will happen and the quicker areas of your campaign world will fill up with procedurally generated points of interest.

Conversely, how comfortable are you improvising this type of content? It’s good to stretch your creative muscles, but it may make more sense to keep the % Lair value low until you’ve gotten more comfortable with pulling lairs out of your hat.

Go to Part 6: Watch Checklist

Go to Part 1

In general, an expedition can navigate through the wilderness by landmark or they can navigate by compass direction.

NAVIGATING BY LANDMARK

Generally speaking, it’s trivial to follow a road, river, or other natural feature of the terrain. It’s similarly easy to head towards any visible landmark. The landmark or terrain feature will determine the route of travel and there’s no chance of becoming lost, so you can simply track the number of miles traveled.

IDENTIFYING LANDMARKS: If the PCs are unsure of a landmark but have had previous experience with it, it may be possible to identify it with a Wisdom (Survival) check, at the DM’s discretion. The accuracy and detail of the identification will depend on prior experience.

Example: A ranger is passing through the woods when they encounter a river. If it’s a river they’ve walked up and down before, the Wisdom (Survival) check might let them confirm that it is, in fact, the Mirthwindle. If they’re less familiar with the region, the check might tell them that this is probably the same river they crossed earlier in the day – it must be taking a southerly bend. If this is the first time they’ve ever seen this river in an area they’re not familiar with, the Wisdom (Survival) check won’t tell them much more than “this is a river.”

NAVIGATING BY COMPASS DIRECTION

Characters trying to move in a specific direction through the wilderness must make a navigation check using their Wisdom (Survival) skill once per watch to avoid becoming lost. The DC of the check is primarily determined by the terrain type the expedition is moving through, although other factors may also apply.

BECOMING LOST: Characters who fail the navigation check become lost and may veer away from their intended direction of travel, as indicated by a 1d10 roll on the diagram below. When lost characters exit a hex, they will exit through the face of the hex indicated by the die roll.

Characters who are lost remain lost. In the new hex neither their intended direction of travel nor their veer will change.

If characters who are already lost fail another navigation check, their veer can increase but not decrease. (If they have not yet begun to veer – i.e., they rolled a 5 or 6 on their initial veer check – then their veer can increase in either direction.)

Example: A lost party is already veering to the left when they fail another navigation check. A roll of 1-4 on 1d10 would cause them to exit the next hex two hex faces to the left of their intended direction, but any other result would not change their veer at all.

ALTERNATE VEERS: These alternate methods of determining veer may be useful, particularly if you are adapting these rules to be used without a hex map.

Absolute Degree: Roll (1d10 – 1d10) x 10 to determine the number of degrees off-course.

Compass Direction: Roll 1d10 and consult the diagram below. (The blue arrow indicates the intended direction of travel.)

USING A COMPASS: Compasses grant advantage to navigation checks. In addition, they automatically eliminate veer at hex borders even if the user doesn’t recognize that they were lost. (Even if you don’t recognize that you ended up off course, the compass constantly reorients you towards your intended direction of travel.)

LOST CHARACTERS

Once a character becomes lost, there are several factors to consider.

RECOGNIZING YOU’RE LOST: Lost navigators continue making a navigation check once per watch. If the check succeeds, they will recognize that they are no longer certain of their direction of travel.

Navigators who encounter a clear landmark or unexpectedly enter a distinctly new type of terrain can make an additional navigation check to realize that they’ve become lost.

Note: Some circumstances may make it obvious to the characters that they have become lost without requiring any check.

REORIENTING: A navigator who realizes that they’ve become lost has several options for reorienting themselves.

Backtracking: A lost character can follow their own tracks (see the Tracking watch action). While tracking allows them to retrace their steps, they must still recognize the point at which they went off-track. If a character is successfully backtracking, they may make a navigation check (using the Navigation DC of the terrain) each watch. If the check is successful, they’ll correctly recognize whether they were previously on-track or off-track. If the check is a failure, they reach the wrong conclusion.

Compass Direction: It requires a DC 10 Wisdom (Survival) check to determine true north without a compass or similar device. On a failed check, randomly determine the direction the navigator thinks is true north.

Setting a New Course: A lost navigator can attempt to precisely determine the direction they should be traveling in order to reach a known objective by making a navigation check at the Navigation DC of the terrain + 10. If the navigator fails the check, they immediately become lost. Determine their direction of travel like any other lost character.

CONFLICTING DIRECTIONS: If several characters in a single party all attempt to determine the correct direction of travel, make their Wisdom (Survival) checks separately. Tell the players whose characters succeeded the correct direction in which to travel, and tell the other characters a random direction they think is right.

Alternative Rule – Group Check: Alternatively, you can use the rules for group checks. If at least half the group succeeds on their Wisdom (Survival) checks, they have determined the correct direction of travel. If not, they immediately become lost.

FINDING LOCATIONS

The difficulty and complexity of finding a specific location within the wilderness varies depending on the character’s familiarity and approach.

Visible Locations: As described in Part 5: Encounters, some locations are visible from a great distance. Characters within the same hex as the visible location (or within a certain number of hexes, as indicated by the key) automatically spot a visible location.

On Road: If a location is on a road, river, or trail, then a character following the road, river, or trail will automatically find the location. (Assuming it isn’t hidden, of course.)

Familiar Locations: Familiar locations are those which a navigator has visited multiple times. Navigators within the same hex as a familiar location can be assumed to automatically find the location. (Within the abstraction of the hexmapping system, they’ve demonstrated sufficiently accurate navigation.) Under certain circumstances, navigators may also be considered “familiar” with a location even if they’ve never been there. (Possibilities include possessing highly accurate topographic maps, receiving divine visions, or using certain types of divinatory magic.)

Note: If navigators are flailing about in their efforts to find a familiar location – by repeatedly “missing the hex,” for example – the GM can decide to treat the location as being unfamiliar until they find some way to reorient themselves.

Unfamiliar Locations: Unfamiliar locations (even those a navigator has been to previously) are found using encounter checks.

In other words, when the navigator has gotten the expedition into the correct hex and a location encounter is generated, that indicates that the navigator has found the location they were looking for. Expeditions can also spend time to specifically search an area in order to increase the odds of finding a location. See Part 7: Hex Exploration.

Go to Part 5: Encounters

This is a useful cheat sheet I created for understanding what characters can see in the wilderness. In practice, sight lines will vary quite a bit (due to hills, forest canopies, atmospheric haze, and other obstructions), but I’ve found it’s useful to have some reference points and a few rules of thumb.

HORIZON: The horizon is 3 miles away at sea level.

NEIGHBORING HEXES: Passing through the center of a 12-mile hex, neighboring hexes cannot be seen. If the path is biased, the nearest hexes can usually be discerned (depending on the terrain).

Design Note: This is one of the reasons I prefer a 12-mile hex. Unless the PCs take special action to see farther, you’ll generally be able to focus exclusively on the hex they’re currently traveling through.

MOUNTAINS: Mountains can be seen from 6 hexes (72 miles) away.

Design Note: My research indicates that most mountain ranges have an average height of 3,000 feet. If you do the math, you can see an object 3,000 feet high from about 68 miles away, which I then rounded up to 6 hexes. Or, if you reverse the math, I’m saying that at 72 miles you can see the occasional peak that’s up to 3,500 feet high in that range or thereabouts. A very tall peak of 10,000 feet could theoretically be seen from 10 hexes away on a clear day.

ELEVATION: Distance to the horizon in miles is the square root of (feet above sea level x 1.5 feet). Add the height of tall objects to the viewer’s. Atmospheric haze will eliminate the ability to see even the largest objects more than 3-5 hexes away.

SIGHTING

Characters may seek out a good location for seeing long distances by taking the Sighting watch action. Height is obviously a factor here, but finding the right sight lines can be equally important. (Climbing a tree is all well and good, but if it’s at the bottom of a valley the effect will be mitigated.) This is also why simply being “on a mountain” doesn’t automatically translate to great sighting: you’re usually surrounded by other mountains.

As a general rule of thumb, assume that characters can find a location granting them 50 feet of height (or the equivalent thereof). This will allow them to see into neighboring hexes, and possibly even see notable locations within those hexes or their current hex (which may or may not require a Wisdom (Perception) check).

If you call for a skill check to find a sighting location, consider using a fail forward technique: On a success, the PCs get the normal benefits of sighting. On a failure, they might only be able to make out the terrain type of two or three of the nearby hexes (and no details thereof).

If circumstances suggest that the PCs would have great sight lines without needing to take special effort, that’s great. It might still be appropriate to allow them to take the Sighting action to improve their line of sight even more, extending their vision by another hex.

ENCOUNTER DISTANCE

When an encounter is generated, the distance at which the encounter may be detected will depend on the terrain in which it is occurring. (If the encounter is with a group of creatures and both sides are surprised – i.e., they do not detect each other – it’s technically possible they will pass each other without ever realizing it.)

The figures here represent typical circumstances on the ground. If the PCs are keeping watch from the top of a stone tower, for example, it’s quite possible for them to spot potential threats at much greater distances.

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