Stupid Hexcrawl Thoughts
Stupid Hexcrawl Thoughts
I want players to be able to explore an entire continent.
I could make a map like this one with 30 mile hexes. But I’m not sure I want to.
If I do make a huge map, there needs to be an easy way to break a hex down into more detail if necessary. And have a wide variety of encounters, exploration, social, environmental, and combat available.
If I don’t make a huge map, I don’t think I can make a procedural hex-generation system better than what is in Scarlet Heroes or other games.
I do think I can make interesting small, regional hex maps.
So is the answer to combine hex and point crawls? Handle the travel between regions with rolls that determine what happened and the party’s condition when it arrives?
I’m currently reading Into the Odd and Slumbering Ursine Dunes that will probably help me work out some ideas. Anything else I should read?
Have you played Fallout 1/2? That's the sort of vibe I'm getting. There's an overworld and points on a map that have specific things, but there's random encounters between each of the points as you Indiana-Jones-style travel along a line on the map.. Being in a vehicle in 2 reduces (or eliminates, I can't remember) the chance of a random encounter.
ReplyDeleteIf that's the kind of system you'd have in a hex/point crawl, I think that would work. The problem would be creating enough interesting content. I would have the hexes be random small encounters that don't actually lead to major story developments per se, and have scripted dungeons/towns at the points.
What works in one medium doesn't necessarily work in another, but I see no reason why you couldn't combine the two.
Personally, I wouldn't handle the travel with rolls and what happened after the fact. Like, oh, they see a cool cave on the way to the town that they're going to. If they go into it, that's costing them resources, but if they don't go in, they're giving up on whatever could be in that cave. That should be what determines how happy they are once they get to the next town. That would require a ton more work, however.
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ReplyDeleteStephen Holowczyk I have not played Fallout, that's what a bad videogamer I am. If it's after Kings Quest V, I probably haven't played it! Good thoughts though. Having lots of tables and sample locations mitigates a lot of work for the GM. This is what Sine Nomine games (Stars Without Number, Scarlet Heroes, Spears of the Dawn) are great at.
ReplyDeleteCasey Garske https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqhccPnN-EE here's a bad YouTube of how it works. You travel in between predefined towns, locations, etc, and in-between those you find random encounters, like I said. I think that would work really well for a game, having an overarching story with some random encounter generators. I wonder if someone's done it. Probably.
ReplyDeleteI will take a look later. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteDust is an American hex crawl.
ReplyDeleteI am experimenting with the ideas of hexcrawls or pointcrawls within pointcrawls, if that makes sense.
ReplyDeleteBasically, pointcrawls or hexcrawls will have "exits" which will link those maps with other maps.
It's still bouncing around in my head. I havent put too much down on paper yet.
Casey Garske you should check out a recent post by Dennis Higgins where he has a picture of that pointcrawl inside a pointcrawl map he is talking about. It's as they say worth a thousand words. But if you want a thousand words: hillcantons.blogspot.com/2014/03/pointcrawling-inside-hexes.html
ReplyDeleteThanks, guys.
ReplyDeleteI like the thought of using the escalation die from Scarlet Heroes' hex generation. Additionally you could use different master tables for larger hexes that have different odds and handle everything with ever increasingly smaller hexes.
ReplyDeleteexample
-roll highest level hex based on neighboring high level hexes: plains
-layout X by X hex subgrid (X could be any scale)
-Google "nested hex maps" for ideas on how to carve it up 6 by 6 feels about right to start
-use plains ratio table and roll for each sub hex: urban
-escalation die can be used to get the over all population density or some other characteristic density across the higher level hex (1 in 8 might be a urban but if you 30 out of 36 subhexes in and no urban rolls, the urban type might be more likely)
-layout X by X on the next layer down and repeat for "plains urban" table
-making your descriptions vague or specific enough to taste can help you determine how deep you want to go. The more layers you want the vaguer you need to be the higher up.
Have urban places be connected via roads (make them more likely), have roads connect across larger hexes.
After laying this out, I kind of want to try it myself.
It looks like Hexographer even has an option to do some of this: "Make a child map."
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