PDA

View Full Version : DM Help Practicalities of the hex crawl



hymer
2016-04-06, 12:50 PM
You have a hex map with a bunch of adventure sites for the PCs to explore. How do you do this practically at the table?
The idea is that some few hexes are revealed from the beginning, but most are hidden in a sort of fog of war. To lift the fog, the PCs will mostly travel (revealing hexes next to the one they're currently in; maybe a little further off for particular cases), acquire maps, talk to locals, and maybe use special abilities and spells. As hexes are revealed to the PCs, they should do likewise for the players.

How the heck do I do it practically?

Spojaz
2016-04-06, 12:58 PM
You draw the map live. Plan it ahead of time, when the party moves, you get up and draw in the new map pieces. Or, if your players can be counted on not to metagame, just tell them how far they can see, and remind them if they move towards something they can't see.

I'm not a huge fan of the hex crawl, but if you like to play minesweeper in order to find the fun, be my guest.

hymer
2016-04-06, 01:23 PM
You draw the map live. Plan it ahead of time, when the party moves, you get up and draw in the new map pieces. Or, if your players can be counted on not to metagame, just tell them how far they can see, and remind them if they move towards something they can't see.

Thanks for the suggestion. Since I use basic MS paint to make my hex maps (using copy/paste mostly), this is a little problematic. But I suppose a temporary map could be made, with letter codes for terrain types... And then between sessions update it properly.

cobaltstarfire
2016-04-06, 01:48 PM
The last hex crawl I did, we were given an empty map. Like we could see the outline of the island but that's about it.

Though we also started the particular hex crawl having met up with a large village of locals who could roughly describe some places of interest with rough directions, as well as a bit of the kinds of conflicts that were going on out there. The DM would fill in the map as we traveled.

He had his own copy of the hex map that was filled in.


It was pretty fun, but even if we were nowhere in particular the DM could usually come up with something interesting.

hymer
2016-04-06, 01:50 PM
The last hex crawl I did, we were given an empty map. Like we could see the outline of the island but that's about it.

Though we also started the particular hex crawl having met up with a large village of locals who could roughly describe some places of interest with rough directions, as well as a bit of the kinds of conflicts that were going on out there. The DM would fill in the map as we traveled.

He had his own copy of the hex map that was filled in.


It was pretty fun, but even if we were nowhere in particular the DM could usually come up with something interesting.

Thanks for the thoughts. The concept of getting non-hex handout maps (probably with an error rate) is growing on me. :smallsmile:

Red Fel
2016-04-06, 02:11 PM
Ever play Settlers of Catan? The basic game is made up of a bunch of hex tiles. Go from the same notion.

Make up a bunch of simple hex tiles, face down on the map. Tiles are turned over as they're exposed.

On each tile, have a background pattern or color, suggesting terrain type (e.g. forest, city, mountains, cavern, etc.), perhaps one or two small graphics to suggest the contents of the hex, and a reference number. The reference number tells you, the DM, what's in the hex, so that you can describe it to the players.

For example, say the PCs are traveling through a dense forest. They scout the next hex, revealing a dark green (forest) tile with some tents and a campfire in the center. The tile reads "F7." Upon checking your list for the contents of F7, you reveal that the party can hear the sounds of a lyre and Elven song coming from a campfire in the middle of the clearing.

Or, on a more macro scale, you have one big gray hex indicating the city. It's surrounded by a dark blue hex (ocean) on one side, light green hexes (fields) on two sides, a brown hex (mountains) to the north, and a dark green hex (forest) to the south. These hexes are immediately visible from the city, as are the hexes beyond the blue (because the ocean extends) and the light green (because the plains are vast and flat); but the hexes beyond the brown and dark green are concealed, because you can't see past the forest or mountains from the city. If the PCs buy a map, however, you can overturn the hexes to the north of the mountains, revealing that a mountain pass leads to another town (also a gray hex).

This method gives simple visual cues that everyone can follow, while only revealing the hexes as they're explored.

hymer
2016-04-06, 02:17 PM
Thanks Red Fel!
However, my map is currently over 500 hexes, so if I can avoid making my own jigsaw puzzle that'd be best. :smallsmile:

JoeJ
2016-04-06, 04:44 PM
I would keep track of where the party is on my own map behind the screen and just describe what they see. It's the responsibility of the players to make whatever kind of map they want. That way they can get lost without me having to do something on the map that would give too much away.

cobaltstarfire
2016-04-06, 04:54 PM
Thanks Red Fel!
However, my map is currently over 500 hexes, so if I can avoid making my own jigsaw puzzle that'd be best. :smallsmile:

I'd consider breaking the map up into smaller sections if you can, or create different scales of hex maps for different needs.

Knaight
2016-04-06, 05:00 PM
If you're wanting to a) handle the mapping personally and b) have an actual map, an option would be to print and label two maps. One of them is your map, and it has the hexes colored in to indicate terrain, borders drawn to indicate regions, and general GM map stuff.

On the other, you have a bunch of hexes, and they have an alphanumeric code on them for coordinates, printed. Then, at the table, you have a box of colored pencils.

Thrudd
2016-04-06, 05:36 PM
You have the map, not the players. You describe what they see as they travel, and describe how long it takes them to get from place to place. They may make a map if they want, if you are so inclined provide them with some blank hex paper. The completeness and accuracy of their map is not your concern. The same goes for dungeon maps and graph paper.

If you wish to provide in-game maps which they might purchase or find, draw them up. It would make sense for such maps not to be on hex paper, and to be of limited scale. For instance, a treasure map might show the way from a town to a specific place, and not include much that is outside the direct route to the goal. Also, in-game prop maps need not always be accurate or complete. After all, a person made the map based on their observations from the ground, or a hilltop at best. Also, who knows how old the map is? Forests grow and spread, disused roads get overgrown and lost, villages spring up or disappear, rivers overflow or dry up.

Potentially getting lost is also an aspect of a hex crawl. Don't make it so easy on them that roads, survival skills and rangers/guides have no use.

BayardSPSR
2016-04-06, 08:14 PM
On the other, you have a bunch of hexes, and they have an alphanumeric code on them for coordinates, printed. Then, at the table, you have a box of colored pencils.


They may make a map if they want, if you are so inclined provide them with some blank hex paper. The completeness and accuracy of their map is not your concern. The same goes for dungeon maps and graph paper.

This might be a weird question, since I've never done a hex crawl before: is it the norm for the players to know that the world is organized by hexes? And does it also work to a have a hidden hex map to track player movement and organize what they run into, but let them assemble their own map completely free-form? It seems like the latter would be more immersive (EDIT: not to say that immersion is the most important, let alone the only objective in structuring your game).

JoeJ
2016-04-06, 08:20 PM
This might be a weird question, since I've never done a hex crawl before: is it the norm for the players to know that the world is organized by hexes? And does it also work to a have a hidden hex map to track player movement and organize what they run into, but let them assemble their own map completely free-form? It seems like the latter would be more immersive (EDIT: not to say that immersion is the most important, let alone the only objective in structuring your game).

Unless you've created a very strange world, it isn't organized by hexes. That's just a mapping technique that abstracts the terrain a bit to make certain tasks easier.

Thrudd
2016-04-06, 09:06 PM
This might be a weird question, since I've never done a hex crawl before: is it the norm for the players to know that the world is organized by hexes? And does it also work to a have a hidden hex map to track player movement and organize what they run into, but let them assemble their own map completely free-form? It seems like the latter would be more immersive (EDIT: not to say that immersion is the most important, let alone the only objective in structuring your game).

The hex map is a DM tool to keep you organized, and it should always be hidden from the players, since it will have notes and a key showing where various lairs and dungeons and towns are located. It lets you organize the map into manageable chunks and tell at a glance what terrain and possible lairs and encounters the party will be encountering as they travel (it is helpful to have a map of the proper scale that one hex is crossed in a day, barring difficult terrain which slows them down). You likely will have multiple maps of varying scales, but the 1 hex/day scale is a very useful one.
Old school players likely are aware that a hex map is used for this purpose by the DM, but the characters certainly don't. I will not answer questions like "what is in this hex?" or "how many hexes have we traveled?" I tell them what their characters encounter and see each day as they travel, and they can translate that onto their map however they want. If you want to be really immersive, make sure their characters have something to write on and draw with in their inventory, and if something happens to them or their gear which would destroy their map (like a fireball, or dropping their gear into the ocean or acid or whatever) take it away or make them destroy the real map they've been drawing. Whichever player is mapping, their character should be assumed to be mapping as well, and not eligible to be carrying anything in their hands, and also moving at a slow pace (5e actually covers this pretty well in the exploration rules).
Personally, I don't mind if they want to use hex paper or graph paper to make their map, but it is more immersive to draw it free-hand.

BayardSPSR
2016-04-06, 09:12 PM
The hex map is a DM tool to keep you organized, and it should always be hidden from the players, since it will have notes and a key showing where various lairs and dungeons and towns are located. It lets you organize the map into manageable chunks and tell at a glance what terrain and possible lairs and encounters the party will be encountering as they travel (it is helpful to have a map of the proper scale that one hex is crossed in a day, barring difficult terrain which slows them down)

Okay, I see. That makes sense; my exposure to hexes (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0175.html) made it seem like an awkward and unnecessary abstraction.

Knaight
2016-04-06, 09:48 PM
Unless you've created a very strange world, it isn't organized by hexes. That's just a mapping technique that abstracts the terrain a bit to make certain tasks easier.

Another way to think of it would be that you interpose the hex based coordinate system over the world, and then use them to track information, with them generally being selected at a small enough size that they aren't too varied in just that small area. It's like latitude and longitude - the world isn't actually organized by them, and it definitely isn't organized by individual latitude and longitude squared, but that doesn't stop us from doing things like dividing the world into 24 time zones, using the tropics of cancer and capricorn as quick climate indicators, etc.

Storm_Of_Snow
2016-04-07, 07:23 AM
They might know the locations of certain things - towns and cities, obvious terrain features like mountains and so on. And, depending on the scale you use, if they travel on certain routes or very quickly, they might only be able to see some details of the hex they travel through, but not all the details or any of those around.

How many hexes are they going to be covering in a gaming session? Would it be possible to only have the ones they're likely to see into available to add in?

Could you potentially leave the map on a PC screen with the unknown hexes obscured or otherwise not displayed? (Not much use I know, mainly due to the cost of it, but I used to work with a mapping app that would allow various layer to be switched on and off on screen and would be absolutely perfect for something like this - maybe there's something that would allow you to do something similar).

What about blu-tak'ing little hexagons over the map (whether blank or containing only the basic information they'd already know) and remove the ones they can see into?


If you wish to provide in-game maps which they might purchase or find, draw them up. It would make sense for such maps not to be on hex paper, and to be of limited scale. For instance, a treasure map might show the way from a town to a specific place, and not include much that is outside the direct route to the goal. Also, in-game prop maps need not always be accurate or complete. After all, a person made the map based on their observations from the ground, or a hilltop at best. Also, who knows how old the map is? Forests grow and spread, disused roads get overgrown and lost, villages spring up or disappear, rivers overflow or dry up.
The map could also be of varying scale - a one inch straight line from a river fork to a temple may be 20 miles on the ground, while the 4 inch long wavy line from the temple to the crooked oak tree used as the next way point is only a mile and a half, but the first section is over pasture land and the second is through a swamp where you need to follow specific patches of more stable ground.

Thrudd
2016-04-07, 10:05 AM
They might know the locations of certain things - towns and cities, obvious terrain features like mountains and so on. And, depending on the scale you use, if they travel on certain routes or very quickly, they might only be able to see some details of the hex they travel through, but not all the details or any of those around.

How many hexes are they going to be covering in a gaming session? Would it be possible to only have the ones they're likely to see into available to add in?

Could you potentially leave the map on a PC screen with the unknown hexes obscured or otherwise not displayed? (Not much use I know, mainly due to the cost of it, but I used to work with a mapping app that would allow various layer to be switched on and off on screen and would be absolutely perfect for something like this - maybe there's something that would allow you to do something similar).

What about blu-tak'ing little hexagons over the map (whether blank or containing only the basic information they'd already know) and remove the ones they can see into?


The map could also be of varying scale - a one inch straight line from a river fork to a temple may be 20 miles on the ground, while the 4 inch long wavy line from the temple to the crooked oak tree used as the next way point is only a mile and a half, but the first section is over pasture land and the second is through a swamp where you need to follow specific patches of more stable ground.

The players never need to see a hex map. They certainly shouldn't see the DM's hex map. You could do whatever you want, but as you point out, they can't actually see everything in a hex, so there's no point in drawing for them even the hex they are currently in. You describe what they see, what they know, and that's it. Leave the in-game mapping up to them. Yes, they might know where the towns and villages in their home region are. If the players are meant to know where some stuff is, give them their own map, not necessarily on hex paper, with a scale or a guide noting how long it takes to travel from one place to the other, such as their characters would be aware of.

How many hexes they cover in a game depends on them, and where they are going, and what scale map you are talking about. If you are on the one hex/day wilderness travel map, they will cover as many as it takes for them to get to wherever they are going. At least once each day, you would roll for wandering monsters based on the terrain and climate of the hex they are in, also roll to see if they run into any keyed encounters or lairs/landmarks in the hex. If you are on a smaller-scale map showing more detail of an important area, where each hex is one-hour of travel, or a mile or two across, (and it is supposed to be a dangerous place), then you might roll for wandering monsters every hour, or once per hex. Even in a one-mile across hex, the characters won't see everything in the hex as they travel through it. Your map tells you what type of terrain is there and what sort of encounters they might run into.

I don't like showing them any map. If they want help to remember where they've been and how to get back, they will draw their own map as they go (assuming their characters are not supposed to know the region well). If they lose their map or fail to make one and can't remember which way to get back to town, that will be an interesting time.

Storm_Of_Snow
2016-04-07, 10:39 AM
Well, the OP wants to show their players a map and reveal bits as they go, so what you or I would do is only really a suggestion.

But it might be an idea to show them a map of where the main settlements are, the major rivers, mountains, the coast and so on, if only so they don't get upset when you tell them the only way they're going in a certain direction is if they buy a boat/tunnelling machine. :smallwink:

I do agree there's limits on what they should have available - anything that's common knowledge or personal knowledge to the characters should be available (if they're from a village 50 miles from the capital, they'd know the area a couple of miles around it quite well, but the road to the capital might be terra incognita), but otherwise, they'll need to do some investigation.

Thrudd
2016-04-07, 12:11 PM
Well, the OP wants to show their players a map and reveal bits as they go, so what you or I would do is only really a suggestion.

But it might be an idea to show them a map of where the main settlements are, the major rivers, mountains, the coast and so on, if only so they don't get upset when you tell them the only way they're going in a certain direction is if they buy a boat/tunnelling machine. :smallwink:

I do agree there's limits on what they should have available - anything that's common knowledge or personal knowledge to the characters should be available (if they're from a village 50 miles from the capital, they'd know the area a couple of miles around it quite well, but the road to the capital might be terra incognita), but otherwise, they'll need to do some investigation.

My interpretation was that the OP was not clear on how to run the game, and assumed the hex map needed to be shared with the players somehow. This is not the case. "Fog of war" is most easily preserved by not showing a map. The players fill in their own map as they travel. "Hex crawl" and "dungeon crawl" does not mean the players see the maps. It means the game is about wilderness exploration and dungeon looting.

Lvl 2 Expert
2016-04-07, 12:21 PM
Thanks Red Fel!
However, my map is currently over 500 hexes, so if I can avoid making my own jigsaw puzzle that'd be best. :smallsmile:

An alternative is to lay down the entire map and cover the undiscovered parts up. Large parts can just be done with wooden boards or something, have some cardboard hexes (or a literal Catan game, but I suppose those tiles are too large) handy for the small corners.

Not ideal, might be workable. Maybe combine it with the sections idea.

Segev
2016-04-07, 02:11 PM
Personally, I'm with the suggestion that you don't reveal the map to them. Let them draw their own. You keep track of where they are on your own map. You track what that means in terms of encounters. Let them either fumble about without a map or draw their own or, if you happen to think it reasonable they could find it, let them hunt down or stumble across a map that you've pre-prepared for them. A map of a limited area, or not-to-scale to guide them from one hex to another and maybe somewhere within that hex.

Traditionally, mapping was an IC thing, and players did it for themselves with one or more characters given the duty IC. Trading maps made in this fashion with others they encounter can be useful, too.

hymer
2016-04-07, 02:25 PM
Thanks everyone for your comments, thoughts and debate! I'll have to think over my options before I make any decision, better equipped now! :smallsmile:

Bulhakov
2016-04-07, 03:22 PM
What I do is print out a generic outline map for the players (with coastlines, major cities, large known terrain features like mountains and deserts) and let them fill in the details as they play.