D&D HexCrawls! How To Do Exploration RIGHT!

Comments · 434

• MI

  @MichaelHaneline · 4 years ago (edited)

  One more tip, from a DM who wishes he did this months earlier in his run of a hexcrawl: keep a record of the various objectives the PCs have shown interest in, learn relevant mechanics for if/when they pursue those goals, come up with some ideas to make it more interesting if they pursue those goals, and also maybe remind the players of the things they showed interest in when appropriate. My players get sidetracked from their sidetracks off of sidetracks, and I find it helps to mention &quot;hey, just a reminder, a month ago you expressed an interest in taming and riding the giant pterandons that live on this island,&quot; when I know that they now have the magic, skills, etc. to pull that off.<br>(Of course, ideally the players would keep track of their own personal goals, but some people are more organized and goal-oriented than others.)

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• TO

  @toddzircher6168 · 4 years ago

  The interactions between encounters is what makes it a living world and not a &apos;chart crawl.&apos;

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• ER

  @EricVulgaris · 4 years ago

  Can&apos;t emphasize enough after running a ton of hexcrawls - tables that provide context for random encounters (what are the monsters doing?) Is invaluable. An encounter with two giants catfishing enables the brain much more than 1d2 giants.

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• JM

  @JMcMillen · 4 years ago

  I think one thing people forget is that if travel by road between two settled areas takes more than one day, inevitably someone is going to build a place for travelers to stay each night. So if it&apos;s two days travel on the road between town A and town B, there&apos;s probably an inn about half way between the two of them.

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• SE

  @seanfsmith · 4 years ago

  I&apos;d never thought of two random encounters and their aftermath as keyed location! That&apos;s super hecking cool

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• BL

  @bluefish5 · 4 years ago

  I think that&apos;s the first time I&apos;ve heard a hexcrawl explained in a way that would make my 5e group interested in playing one. really well done! Thanks for the content :)

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• MO

  @MostlyAverage · 4 years ago

  Just found you. First D&amp;D channel in a long time where it doesn&apos;t feel like I&apos;ve already seen all the idea&apos;s before.

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• UR

  @uriahsteel · 2 years ago

  Outstanding. I just found these videos. I am 64 and I miss playing D&amp;D so much. I even graduated dungeonmaster school at GenCon in Milwaukee so many years ago. I played the original D&amp;D when it first came out.

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• KN

  @KnarbMakes · 4 years ago

  Love it when a campaign book includes a hexcrawl inside!

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• GU

  @guille787 · 4 years ago

  I really like the approach of the Kingmaker Pathfinder campaign with it&apos;s hexploration system. Also, the kingdom building rules and resources scattered throughout the map are excellent to motivate players to explore and great quests enablers.

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• RA

  @raiserofchickens · 4 years ago

  The titular Tomb aside, the Tomb of Annihilation campaign is primarily a hexcrawl exploration game. The first two thirds of the game is essentially wandering around in the jungle looking for the location of the Tomb. It&apos;s a great survival and exploration campaign and setting that can stand on it&apos;s own without needing to use the infamous dungeon and related story.

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• TO

  @toddvanevenhoven7736 · 4 years ago

  One of the best homebrew ideas for GMing I&apos;ve ever run across. Thank you! Now instead of trying to find the perfect location for that encounter I want, I let the dice decide so I can focus on fleshing it out. And I can use it as either a non plot forwarding device or as one. My humanoid tribes, snake cult, slavers and monster of the week now will quickly have homes!<br>PS Ankhegs make for a great encounter ala the creatures from Tremors in a barren valley with only scattered boulders and an abandoned, ancient open air temple occupying it

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