PDA

View Full Version : Why Hexcrawling?



Yora
2016-04-29, 12:35 PM
What is the draw of hexcrawling campaigns?

I understand it so far that you start with a hex map and the players decide which hex to go to and then they might find something when they get there. If there is something.

That just by itself really doesn't sound fun at all. What do you actually do in a hexcrawl campaign that leads to a sense of progress and accomplishment. Surely it's not actually all about checking off all the hexes on the map?

Elderand
2016-04-29, 12:41 PM
That's....that's a terrible question.

Might as well ask about the sense of accomplishment you get from the initiative order in combat.

Hexes are just a way to map things, some people like them better than squares. End of story.

Yora
2016-04-29, 12:45 PM
Yes, I do get the point of a hex map. But there's a campaign type called hexcrawling in which the main activity is going through hexes to see if there is anything interesting there.

Segev
2016-04-29, 12:47 PM
What is the draw of hexcrawling campaigns?

I understand it so far that you start with a hex map and the players decide which hex to go to and then they might find something when they get there. If there is something.

That just by itself really doesn't sound fun at all. What do you actually do in a hexcrawl campaign that leads to a sense of progress and accomplishment. Surely it's not actually all about checking off all the hexes on the map?

They're for "explore/wander the world" games.

An excellent example of a Hex Crawl done without hexes in a video game is Star Control II: The Ur-Quan Masters. I recommend looking into it for a good description of how one might work and what might be engaging about it.

JoeJ
2016-04-29, 12:53 PM
What is the draw of hexcrawling campaigns?

I understand it so far that you start with a hex map and the players decide which hex to go to and then they might find something when they get there. If there is something.

That just by itself really doesn't sound fun at all. What do you actually do in a hexcrawl campaign that leads to a sense of progress and accomplishment. Surely it's not actually all about checking off all the hexes on the map?

What's the draw of exploration in the real world? Why would anyone want to map the Louisiana Purchase, or find the source of the Nile, or reach the South Pole, or go to Mars? Exploration taps into the same motives and sense of accomplishment in a game that it does in real life.

SirBellias
2016-04-29, 02:12 PM
When I run hexcrawls, I have the players start at the same spot each time, tell them a list of rumors, and then they decide what to act on and which route to take. They may run into any number of encounters, from mundane to fantastic, on the way, and they can try to mark things off on the map when they find them. I usually give an experience bonus to them for discovering things, even though it's pretty random. It gives them a sense of accomplishment when they witness an event taking place and completely overturn it for no good reason, and hexes are a decent way of organizing general biomes and such that have different encounter types. I like it as a way of keeping track of where the players go, and the players like it because they like to be free to do whatever they want, even though they could do that even when I didn't run them.

Basically, it's a decent way of letting your crazy "no rails" players jump wherever they want and still find something of interest. They like happening across things from their previous adventures and setting them on fire, too, and this type of game serves that aspect well.

neonagash
2016-04-29, 03:01 PM
I've ran a couple of good hexcrawl games. It really is all about unveiling mystery. None of them had a big well defined world to start with.

First one was the PC's were shipwrecked sailors trying to survive with a few other members of the crew who had survived. That one was kind of a wilderness/survival horror thing. Pretty fun up to level 6 but after that it lost some zest so i had them rescued and we started something new.

Second was similar, the players were 1st generation colonists on a brand new continent. So literally the whole point was that they were there to search for new sources of wealth and power for the homeland Columbus style. That campaign lasted a long time and eventually got to where the players were starting their own little forts and townships.

The other that comes to mind was a space exploration game. Basically startrek meets warhammer. Humans were brand new to space and this was a first generation exploration ship. So they had all sorts of fun with first encounters, unknown dangers and hilarious malfunctions. Good times till they got blown up by space orcs.

Basically the players have to know ahead of time its about exploration, buy into the concept and make characters accordingly. A large focus often seems to be on getting obscenely rich rather then necessarily saving worlds and heroics for some reason.

Thrudd
2016-04-29, 03:13 PM
It's what you find as you explore that is the point. The party goes out looking for things, usually a dungeon or a castle or ruins, and has encounters on their travels. Or maybe they are lost and looking for their way home. It's not just checking off hexes on a map. In fact, the players never need to see a map (though they'd be smart to make one as they go).

"Hex crawl" really means an open world, where the player's path is not charted for them ahead of time. Whatever direction they choose to go, for whatever reason, you have a map and encounter tables which tell you what they find. Resist the urge to skip over the travelling part of the adventure with narrative: "you travel for five days and get to the dungeon." What happens while trying to get there is half the game.

Winter_Wolf
2016-04-29, 05:04 PM
I'm into exploration for its own sake, and the cool stuff (experience, scenery, people, actual treasures) I may find along the way.

So, not to be flippant, "Why hex crawling?" Because I can. I mean sure, saving the world can be rewarding, but one can't be doing that all the time. You'd burn out and let everything go to Hades eventually. Well, I would.

LibraryOgre
2016-04-29, 05:40 PM
A hexcrawl is only as interesting as what you find. Now, you might want to start looking for all sorts of things, but since people aren't really waking up looking over entirely new terrain, the things you find out there should be interesting.

WHY are they hexcrawling? What are they looking for? Are they mapping? Are they looking for a place to set up a settlement? Are they trying to find something rumored to be off that way?

Once you know the why, think about the WHO, especially in D&D likes. Who are they going to meet? Who will help them, who will hinder them? What do those people want, and how will the party respond to those wants?

Slipperychicken
2016-04-29, 05:45 PM
I have played games with overworld maps for us to explore, and I've enjoyed it. Hex-maps are just one way to represent the overworld.

Lacco
2016-05-03, 02:19 AM
Why hexcrawling? No idea, but I always wanted to try it out.

Maybe it's the "old school" feeling.
Maybe it's the exploration.

I would love to try it out - however, there are too little games that fit my expectations and whose expectations I fit in :smallbiggrin:

And yes, the thing that draws me mostly to this genre is the travelling - while it's interesting to explore the dungeon, for me, for me it's also interesting to try to get to the dungeon, to manage supplies, to plan the travel, to explore the land and try to find the easiest path to the dungeon.

Yora
2016-05-03, 04:17 AM
But again, isn't that hex travel? Hex crawling always seems to sound like the objective is to visit as many hexes and possible to see if there is anything there.

hymer
2016-05-03, 04:39 AM
I'm not sure what exactly you mean by a hex crawl, Yora.
I guess that in any campaign, players have differing motivations. Some want to explore, some want immersion, some want to build effective PCs, some want to see character archs unfold, some want to kill monsters. A hex crawl (by my definition of the term) is able to accomodate all of those if the DM chooses to include them.

Comet
2016-05-03, 05:18 AM
Hexes are like dungeon rooms. At first it's all about that anticipation of what's around the corner, then it's about making informed tactical decisions based on pattern recognition and data gathered up to that point. Finally, and this is my favourite point, it's about the uncontrolled chaos that ensues as all of those disparate locations, random encounters and PC-initiated movements start to interact in ways that are impossible to predict.

So, yes, at first it's just about checking out as many hexes as you can and seeing what lurks within, usually motivated by potential treasure. Things evolve from there but the fundamentals stay the same. Hexes and dungeon rooms are story packages waiting to be opened and Christmas is all about being careful about what you wish for because one of those story packages might be Death Frost Doom.

Yora
2016-05-03, 07:57 AM
I'm not sure what exactly you mean by a hex crawl, Yora.

I don't know either. That's the topic here.

I often see people saying they are running a hexcrawl campaign. What is a hexcrawl campaign? What's the goals? What's the motivation?

hymer
2016-05-03, 08:05 AM
I don't know either. That's the topic here.

I often see people saying they are running a hexcrawl campaign. What is a hexcrawl campaign? What's the goals? What's the motivation?

Well, for my 2cp, a hexcrawl campaign has exploration as a central theme, and uses the hex map. It (like life) is like a sewer; what you get out of it depends on what you put into it. :smallwink:

Democratus
2016-05-03, 09:27 AM
Hexcrawls are player-driven campaigns.

Exploration is the starting point. But the end goal is a world where the players are setting the pace.

Characters can set goals and work to accomplish them.

Examples from my old-school Hexcraw that starts in 2 days:


I have a character who wants to become a master weaponsmith. Toward this end he wants to have his own iron mine, he wants to explore the world for exotic materials and knowledge, and he wants to spend years perfecting his craft.

I have another character with a goal of creating a guild that owns teleportation circles scattered throughout the world. They will become the information superhighway of the fantasy world.

Yet another is on a quest to re-unite two aspects of her god into a whole (gods of good luck and misfortune back into the god of fate).


In a story-driven campaign, pursuing these things would be a distraction at best and negligent at worst. When you are racing to save the world you can't stop and build a life or accomplish personal goals.

In a Hexcrawl the world is your resource. What you do with it is up to you.

CE DM
2016-05-03, 09:34 AM
What is the draw of hexcrawling campaigns?

I understand it so far that you start with a hex map and the players decide which hex to go to and then they might find something when they get there. If there is something.

That just by itself really doesn't sound fun at all. What do you actually do in a hexcrawl campaign that leads to a sense of progress and accomplishment. Surely it's not actually all about checking off all the hexes on the map?

exploration

you don't do it by itself anyway, though. You have seen X1 Isle of Dread, right? That's a hexcrawl. It's also ripe for the DM to add a great deal, but even left as it is, it's NOT just marking off hexes.

CE DM
2016-05-03, 09:39 AM
I don't know either. That's the topic here.

I often see people saying they are running a hexcrawl campaign. What is a hexcrawl campaign? What's the goals? What's the motivation?

Uh, what are the goals or motivation for a dungeoncrawl or any type of game? They VARY. The DM &/or players need to make them up.

The example I gave, X1, can have several. find the giant pearl, exploration, trade, spread your religion, kill things & take their stuff, make an exotic bestiary or zoo, you name it.

CombatBunny
2016-05-03, 12:18 PM
Think of hex-crawls just as another GM tool

Yes, there can be entire hex-crawl campaigns the same way that there can be dungeon-crawling campaigns, site-based campaigns, event based campaigns, sandbox campaigns, etc.

Usually, the GM will use a mix of a couple of them during a campaign.

Hex-crawl is not just about exploring the terrain in a random way. You can give some hooks to your players the same way that you begin a standard adventure, but you give freedom to explore the terrain to your PCs as they will.

“The city has been attacked by monsters, some say that they come from the mountains of the east, although grizzlier happenings have been reporter in the nearby kingdom of Thardum to the north. Also, there is a large kingdom to the south from which we can ask for help, oh, and there is a legend of a hermit somewhere in the surroundings hidden by a cascade, who has a magic ball that can explore the land to realize where does the attacks are actually coming from”.

As you see, players are free to roam wherever they want, but that doesn’t means that the hexes themselves won’t be seed (randomly or not) with NPCs, clues, subplots, dungeons or anything that gives consistency to your world shaking events.

The fellowship of the ring can be seen as a hexcrawl itself. PCs know where they have to go and how to destroy the ring, but the routes they can take and the exploration itself is up to the players, as well as the towns and kingdoms that they will meet and the NPCs with which they will interact.

Thrudd
2016-05-03, 12:21 PM
Hexcrawl/dungeoncrawl are terms that go together. They describe the mechanism of play, not the point of play. Certainly, the DM could just say "here's a blank map, start exploring", with both the wilderness and the dungeon, and some players might be ok with that. But most likely, especially nowadays, you need more.

Players hear of the lost city of gold, somewhere far to the north. They take a series of rumors describing the path and the location, and start traveling north. Once they go beyond the hills, they are now in uncharted territory. They travel for a number of weeks into unknown lands before they see the landmarks which the rumors indicated showed the lost-city's location. They find it, and explore it's ruins before breaking into the great central pyramid. Now, it's a dungeon crawl and they explore the catacombs below the pyramid where the legends said a powerful magician once ruled over the city. If they survive, they return to home town, hopefully without getting lost on the way. They receive their XP, and spend time training and studying if they received enough XP to gain a new level. Now they go in search of new rumors and legends of treasures and magic or faraway cities.

Democratus
2016-05-03, 01:06 PM
The recent revival of Hexcrawl campaigns was spurred on by this: West Marches (http://arsludi.lamemage.com/index.php/78/grand-experiments-west-marches/).

Give it a read if you want an example of a successful hexcrawl.

Airk
2016-05-03, 03:46 PM
See, there's the terrible hexcrawl that everyone thinks of when they think of hexcrawls:

Party: We go north
GM: Okay, it's forest. <rolls for a random encounter> Nothing happens. Mark off one ration each.
Party: We search for things
GM: <Rolls. May or may not actually look at the roll> You don't find anything interesting.
Party: I guess we go North...

And then there's the hexcrawl where you've heard rumors a lost dwarven fortress somewhere to the northeast, a goblin warchief gathering his horde to the south, and the lost tower of the archmage somewhere in the western mountains, and you can go and actually look for things in an intelligent fashion.

Angry GM wrote a bunch of stuff about this, but basically, the players/characters HAVE to have information to make decisions with. If they're just blundering around the map hoping something interesting happens, that is a sucky game.

Kol Korran
2016-05-04, 12:08 AM
Hex crawling caters for specific gaming aesthetics (From the 8 aesthetics of play):
1. Exploration:
This is of course the main one. How? Well:
- It gives tools for exploration: The region is dissected into "portions" (Hexes), that you can check, explore (With given mechanics), and then "know" the degree it's been explored (Contrary to an amorphous/ drawn/ grid less map, because in grid less exploration, you can't really ascertain how much you've explored). It gives rules for travel, for getting lost, for dangerous zones and so on.

- It gives the freedom to explore: You can check many different directions, leads, mysteries, and you can freely decide "I want to go THERE", just because that's interesting to you. Since the GM has made a hex map, s/he can tell you what is there. In a grid less game, you might have destinations, you might have things on route, but usually you have far less freedom (And far less understanding of the world to understand what can be found).

- It gives mysteries to uncover: Though some exploration games may start with "Map the nearby area", most of them are littered with clues, hints and more about potential interesting locations, along with some hints of where to find them. ("The lost dwarven fort is in the north mountains", "The Burrow of the Fey Lord resides on a barren hill, near a river", "There is this riddle, that tells of the lost relics of X..."). Now, it's important to note that:
a) You rarely give out the exact location. The party does need to explore and find out, exactly where it is (This is a big part of the thrill of the exploration aesthetic).
b) You don't need to find most of these. Though there may be some locals that are crucial/ essential for the game, many are "optional", and the party doesn't "Have to" visit them. Otherwise, the game will find a way to make the party find those, and so... was the planning to find them really needed?
c) Some mysteries may be very hard to puzzle, and may bot be achieved in the game, but if they are- the reward should be appropriate (be it loot, a really cool and interesting adventure, special info, and so on).

- Exploration can be it's own challenge: I'll touch a but more ton that when describing the challenge aesthetic, but managign exploration can be it's own challenge and fun:
a) Choosing a path and destination: Where do we go next? We have clues to the east, west, north, and we can link X Y and Z, M and N are quite dangerous. Can we incorporate a few locations?
b) Traveling problems: How do we cross this river? How do we make it passed the orc grounds in time? How do we traverse the ever-storm mountains? How do we cross the salt desert?
c) Resource management: The dragon's grave yard is supposed to be beyond the orcs lands, the Lifeless Marches, somewhere in the Forbidden Mountains. Going around the orc lands will take a lot of time, and a lot of resources, but going through will be dangerous. The Lifeless Marches don't have any game we can hunt... We'll need to take everything with us, and extra water, lots of extra water, you remember it's poisonous, right? And we'll need to have enough to explore the mountains, you know it takes longer to explore mountain hexes... Should we take a cart? Is there enough place in our bag of holding? Horses? Maybe we should postpone exploring it, for now?

2) Fantasy:
I know there are many GMs who dislike making the mechanics more apparent, such as dice rolls, DCs, or in this case- Hexes. They think that making the mechanics more visible, making the math/ numbers known, that it derails from immersion, and the feel of fantasy. I beg to differ. The players don't share the GMs mind, and as such are dependent on any info you may give them. And in this case- being able to visualize the world by actually SEEING how long and wide are the Red Hills, understanding the location of The Giant's Hall, in relation to other locals, experiencing the length of travel through actually feeling the hexes, their exploration, random encounters and so on, it actually gives the players a far better sense of the world. If you make regions in the map interact, affect each other, hints relate to different places, random encounters be specific to regions, and thematically appropriate, giving the region more flavor, more character, then the Hex crawl actually greatly intensifies the feeling of fantasy. Players start to relate to the world by what They found, They experienced, instead of hearing it mostly second hand from the GM. It's also important to note that quite a few descriptions by the GM, may mean one thing to them,and different things to different people. But by actually experiencing and seeing these, through tackling the crawl can give each player a far more accurate info, on which to base their own decisions. Some examples:
- "The White capped mountains are very dangerous, and hard to travel" Vs. "Heck! I'm not going there again! Those frost giants killed Lenny, and almost us. I think we need to gain at least 3 levels before going back there, and a decent ranger, and decent climbing gear. Those cliffs are a bugger!"
- "The marches are vast, wide, and fraught with lizardfolk!" vs. "So... we went 5 hexes deep, and explored about 3-4 hexes wide... We found the southern border to the swamps, but I don't feel like messing the gnolls there, and We fear there is some sort of dragon in the north, though we don't know where... Still didn't find the east border.. I think it's at least 3-4 more hexes. But man, are those lizardfolks chumps! Good that we found the tactic to deal with them!"

3. Challenge:
Challenge is usually described as "overcoming an obstacle course", and that may not seem like it would fit a hex crawl, but a hex crawl IS an obstacle course, just not a linear one. A hex crawl gives a LOT of power in the hands of the party, and their decisions matter far more, than a linear plot. And having the players decision matter, and determine the effect, the ability to lose by understood mechanics, is essential for the Challenge Aesthetics. A hex crawl usually also offers locations/ exploration of greater danger, with some hits and ability to gather more info on that local/ danger, and in so give the Challenge oriented players the ability to learn, prepare, plan and try to execute their solution to the challenge, which can be very, very satisfactory for challenge oriented players. Some examples of challenge:
- We found the Mound of the lich king! But we nearly got wiped in the first level. We better prepare dealing with undead and magical traps more, before going back.
- Ok, we know that the Open Sky Savannah has a large population of hostile centaurs, with bows. They are tough. Also, We know the place has a few Bulletes living in it. How do we deal with those?
- Crap! So the ritual of Doom is going to be enacted in a two months time, and we don't know where it is being performed! Any ideas of what leads to explore? Where to find more info? If we mess this up, there goes the region!
- Will you look at that! They weren't lying about the hall of gold! Um, how are we going to get all of this back?
- I can't believe we got lost again in the trackless forest! We keep wasting time, and the damn forest trolls killed Lenny! Those bastards! We must find a way to either fight them, or not get lost!

4. Sensation:
This one is a bit easier. Yeah, the main thing here is the map, but many times these games include other visual clues, such as other maps, riddles and more. Though not usually a major aesthetic, it is part of it.


-------------------------------------------

What sort of Aesthetics are problematic in hex crawl?

Narrative:
Hex crawls many times are counter productive for the Narrative Aesthetic. Narrative requires a well defined structure, of beginning, logical progression, and a satisfying conclusion. Hex crawls, in their very open, player driven, changing exploration, and multiple exploration sites, do not lend well to such a structure. Players who wish to "get on with the story/ stop messing around and get back to what the game is about", usually hate "just wandering around". The possible added mysteries and "optional exploration" detracts from the focus on the main story.

Narrative CAN be done in an exploration game, but it's quite more difficult. It means tying nearly all of the locals in some significant way to the main story, and a bit stronger indication for exploration of specific sites. in short- Not exploration for exploration's sake only, but also due to some narrative reason. Hard to do, but possible.

Expression:
This is a tricky one, as this aesthetic is far more in the hands of the player, than the GM. Usually the GM needs to introduce situations that are easy triggers for the player to express themselves in. Again, this can be done, but due to the many locals, and due to most of the planning being made neutral to the players' character builds, this often requires some more investment.

Hex crawls also quite frequently involve less social interaction 9Not a must, but far less than... an urban campaign, for example), and many times the exploration challenges appeal more to Exploration and Challenge, and less to Expression.


---------------------------------

An example of an exploration game done right: (Not needed, but interesting)
As a previous poster mentioned, the old computer game: Star Control II, The Ur Quan Masters (There are remakes of it, I highly advise playing it for those who haven't), is a FANTASTIC example of an exploration game made right, and can teach a lot about hex crawling.

It doesn't have hexes, but its "Sectioned exploration" is by star systems. So it is very similar in concept. You need to plan your star travels (Fuel, storage capacity, going through hostile territories) and so on.

You basically start with the bare minimal of a star faring ship, having returned from a "sort of exile", where you lost connection with earth, during a massive intergalactic war. When you come back, you find the war is over, and that you've lost! Earth is under a sort of "Slave shield", and it's up to you to try and free it, and gather resources, allies, and figure out how to win against the impossible empire of the Ur Quan.
- Exploration wise, it is marvelous: There are HUNDREDS of star systems. You begin with a map of the war-era, with different spheres of influence of the various alien species, but you quickly learn that things have changed...You start of by scavenging near star systems for resources (To upgrade your ship and small fleet), and start finding out many hints, mysteries, and potential locations. (The Starbase above Earth gives you a few initial ones as well). I remember the thrill of trying to plan a route for exploration on the current trip, of finding more clues, and deciding "Ok, I think we need to go THAT way", because I got some clues about something interesting/ helpful. The thrill of finding out a lost technology, a secret, a new race, a lucrative resource system, and more.
- Fantasy wise, the game was spectacular. Races reacted (You can only mess with the Ur Quan so many times before they sent retribution. If you tricked the Ilwarth, you could send them to make war on other races, The.. .fishy strange people would attack you if you explored their sudden appearance here too muc, Sell your people to the Druuje, and hiring more crew men becomes mighty pricy!), and the game and story had a very deep, and amazing consistency (Though this allready slips into narrative as well. I said it could be done right,. yes?)
- Challenge wise it was quite challenging: Different regions offered different resistance, Upgrading your ship required a lot of scavenging, resource management, and knowing which fights to pick. From the onset of the game there are ships trying to hunt you, which can cause serious damage ("We come in peace!") and some races can prove quite a challenge to get through or circumvent (The Ur Quan themselves occupy a HUGE portion of the map, and some of your objectives lie on the other side, or in the center of their region. More then that- you learn that the game has two time sensitive issues- the proliferation of ships that basically multiply themselves, and the resolution of an ancient conflict, which when it will end, will progress to the annihilation of all known races. In two games we didn't manage to stop these events, and it was terrifying! It sure made the challenge far more pressing, far more challenging, far more fun!

Yora
2016-05-04, 05:02 AM
So any sandbox game with a hex map qualifies as Hexcrawl? Sounds like those are the same thing to me.

hymer
2016-05-04, 05:12 AM
So any sandbox game with a hex map qualifies as Hexcrawl? Sounds like those are the same thing to me.

Sandbox is the wider concept of the two. The hexcrawl heavily implies exploration. A hexcrawl is a kind of sandbox, but a sandbox need not be a hexcrawl.

Alcibiades
2016-05-04, 06:15 AM
So the well-known 'Western Marches' campaign was a hex-crawl?

Kol Korran
2016-05-04, 06:22 AM
So any sandbox game with a hex map qualifies as Hexcrawl? Sounds like those are the same thing to me.


Sandbox is the wider concept of the two. The hexcrawl heavily implies exploration. A hexcrawl is a kind of sandbox, but a sandbox need not be a hexcrawl.

Indeed. A sandbox game mostly means, if I get it right, that there is no set plot. There are varying degrees of sandbox games, with different levels of the following ingredients:
- The limits/ frame/ boundaries of the sandbox: Whether geographical (The Sandbox happens in a region/ in a continent/ in the entire world/ in this star system/ in the galaxy/ in the universe/ in the multiverse), Time scope (This year, This decade, This century, Can- or- cannot go back and forth in time), or focus (This game is about exploration/ dungeon looting/ intrigue/ We're only going up to 10th level/ We're dealing with the war, that's it!)
- The scope of what is possible (Can they become kings? Deities? Lead armies? And so on)
- The level of other factions/ NPCs/ World events progress, initiative and response. (Is the world fairly passive, with dungeons, monsters and such just waiting? If the PCs won't intervene in the conflict, will it just wait for them to do so, or escalate? If the PCs don't intervene, will The Red Hand of Doom destroy Brindol?)

Hex crawl is a mechanic, (in it's basest form, these are the tools to map and explore an area, with each "Section" of the area, limited to a hex) that lends itself nicely to exploration based sandboxes, but can at times be used for other stuff (Like Paizo's attempts on several modules. Most famous is of course Kingmaker, but it's not the only one. Not Good attempts, but it can work, after a fashion).

The core of Hexcrawl in my opinion comes from the following core concepts:
- Freedom to explore (This does not mean no consequences or stress! But it does mean the players, not the GM, makes the choice)
- Mechanics that support exploration of large areas, in a systemic way.
- Things to uncover in such an exploration.

What you use it for, well that is bigger than just the Hexcrawl.
- Some campaigns will be about finding new land, acquiring resources, establishing settlements (Kingmaker style).
- Some will be about exploring new lands, new loot, new dangers (West Marches style)
- Some can be as parts of military campaigns, survival campaigns, Mystery campaigns, and more.
- Many times the Hex crawl part constitute part of the campaign, not it's entirety.

hymer
2016-05-04, 07:30 AM
So the well-known 'Western Marches' campaign was a hex-crawl?

No, but only because they didn't uses a hex map - at least as far as I know/recall they didn't.