Hexcrawl support and tables

[onerom]

As you know I did two games at OD&D and they were satisfactory. Now I would like to try a campaign, using the concept of hexcrawling. What do you recommend me to use? Are there manuals, old or new, with random generation tables that can help me? Do I need to create things before playing or during the game? Should each hex have a place or an encounter, or should some be left empty? Should I graft structured adventures into the sandbox system, or build them improvised as the game runs? 
I ask you veterans: what are the risks of this type of game? What can I do wrong?
Thanks.

[ripx187]

Hexcrawling does seem to be a common concern, but like anything you've just got to dive in and get a feel for it. I've done it multiple ways and enjoy them all! You can use premade maps like Wilderness Adventure just to get a feel for it, or at least study it as it is a good map. You do want some stuff on there, but most of it should just be general information to keep your story straight. Major roads, Cities, mountain peaks, and rivers: you can start with them and build the terraign around them. You can do some terra randomly and fill the rest of it in by feel or whatever, but once you have the major things there the rest of the map seems to come together.  

I don't detail everything, I want to play the game with the players, it keeps me from working on stuff that nobody cares about. This is a sketch, the full painting will be done live on game day. If this game is going to last a while, go ahead and construct some random encounter tables, the more the marrier! I do try to fit them all onto one sheet of paper, and honestly, you can recycle these things for other games or use them as a templet later on. I've even created lists of things that one finds out in the wilderness. I like the random lists as it does feel like I'm playing but nothing is stoping you from not rolling against them or just making it up as you go. Creating these things leads to lots of ideas, you don't have to sit down and get them done all at once, just write stuff down as the idea comes. Nothing is worse than siting there on game day with Zero ideas, and I know that I feel like this is the perfect oportunity (wilderness exploration) to really fill in what the world is like. If you don't use the stuff, who cares, you don't throw it away, you use it again. This is general information that can work with ANY wilderness. If you're at a loss as to what can happen were, roll to see.

This is walking a line, I think, between modular and true D&D, but like I said, take care of it. Do hard work once and in a way that you don't have to redo it again and it should improve your enjoyment of running the game. Besides, it's kind of fun.

[The Perilous Dreamer]

onerom good advice from ripx187 and a great way to start. Me I create everything on the fly and always did from the beginning. But I am a bit of an odd duck. Most people benefit from some structure (self-created or otherwise) and IMO the self-created is the best. Some prefer structure from others. Me I look at a hex and I can see the whole thing in my minds eye from an aerial view and from a ground view. As was said dive in, you will learn how much detail you need and what to keep and what to toss aside. If you have done any hiking out in the countryside on different types of terrain that is a help in describing things. If you have pictures of different types of terrain that can be helpful. If you have all watched some movies in common you can refer to the terrain in a specific scene. That is good for your own imagination whether you do pregame design or create on the fly. It is good to decide up front what monsters and non-monsters your hex might have or you can make that decision on the fly. Everyone is different so dive in and find out what works for you.

When you watch a movie for the second time instead of the movie story, think about what might be in that woods or swamp or ocean.

[onerom]

Thanks for your precious advices! I expected links and titles of manuals, but you gave me something better. Maybe I miss this spontaneity and I'm too technical, I should have more inspiration. Slowly I will start to make a list, but I'm not sure that prepare people and objects each with their own objectives, or real plots made especially for interacting.

[ripx187]

Dec 17, 2018 3:28:37 GMT -5 onerom said:

Thanks for your precious advices! I expected links and titles of manuals, but you gave me something better. Maybe I miss this spontaneity and I'm too technical, I should have more inspiration. Slowly I will start to make a list, but I'm not sure that prepare people and objects each with their own objectives, or real plots made especially for interacting.

I wouldn't give up your style, Onerom. My players prefer if I lead them a bit. I still provide objectives, I still tell stories, my players don't have time to come over and not know what to do. I still prep for the next game, even if it is in my head. I try to keep the world responding to them. I work on set pieces, I design environments, I like worthy villains and competent allies. I like to work with recurring themes, I'll place a group of monsters out in the wild and try to figure out what they are up to even though nobody is out there. I want to create an illusion of a living world. The freedom that I have found here, and with talking with these guys, is to let my ideas come first and the rules conforming to them instead of the other way around.

I still prep. I just don't want to ever overdo it, as it burns me out and can be frustrating on game day. I really enjoy how drawing a map inspires all of these little backstories. The history of the place and the lore, that is the DMs job and what makes prep fun. Will the players discover some of this stuff? Do they care? I don't know, but it is one of the things that makes me want to be a Dungeon Master, so I don't give it up. 

In my own wilderness, I do set up some stories out there prior to play. For instance, I'll invent a huge treasure horde and design it. Who put it there and why. I don't know exactly where it is either, I just know that it is out there. I'll have evidence of people looking for it. I'll place evidence of the person who left it there was there. I'll have old crime scenes of ancient failures placed on the map, particularly when there is a guardian I'll give clues on the powers of this creature. I place traps on my wilderness maps, either natural or manmade, I also like to know what kind of monsters are out there, if I did make a random encounter list (and I do) I always put a couple of really nasty baddies on there that can kill the party. I will leave clues that these things are out there. I'll place its lair on the map and figure out what it is up to. I like to put positive places on the map as well. Places where food is plentiful, good spots to camp, maybe some magic spring or something. If they find it, there is a bonus of some kind. There are seeds planted here and there all over, if Bugbears are on my encounter lists then there will be evidence of bugbears in the wilderness, but I don't need to write that stuff down, I just have to know. How do they cope with the big baddy, what is the relationship that they have with the other creatures on the list, why haven't they been hunted, how do they keep alive out there. If they rob traders on the road, what are they doing with the spoils? How big is this threat? Is a major Bugbear ruler in the area, if there is I will fully design him. He's got plans and ambitions! Why is he a leader? He had best get results. There is lots to design out there that will improve your enjoyment and the technical quality of your games. If nobody cares about the Bugbear king, and he never shows up, keep him in the back of your mind and store his stats for later; though, I kind of quit stating NPCs. I know that the king has high stats, and my group does enjoy a war game so I might add bonuses to the king and his commanders for Charisma but it's not something that I really need to write down, it is just a habit. Why waste my time with specifics that I don't need to write down? Besides, my players might accidentally let slip that they fear something bigger, and better and I'll want to go with that instead.

[Jakob Grimm]

onerom a lot of great advice there for you. I agree with ripx187, except what he calls story, I call adventure hooks. He is using story in the old early 1970's meaning, not the modern gaming definition. What he is calling "leading" his players is simply providing lots of choices and options. They are free to choose from the menu or do something else. Really active players might talk between games and lay their own plans which may be informed by all the choices and options previously given. So his "leading" is a long way from the modern unbreakable chains railroad.

This

In my own wilderness, I do set up some stories out there prior to play. For instance, I'll invent a huge treasure horde and design it. Who put it there and why. I don't know exactly where it is either, I just know that it is out there. I'll have evidence of people looking for it. I'll place evidence of the person who left it there was there. I'll have old crime scenes of ancient failures placed on the map, particularly when there is a guardian I'll give clues on the powers of this creature. I place traps on my wilderness maps, either natural or manmade, I also like to know what kind of monsters are out there, if I did make a random encounter list (and I do) I always put a couple of really nasty baddies on there that can kill the party. I will leave clues that these things are out there. I'll place its lair on the map and figure out what it is up to. I like to put positive places on the map as well. Places where food is plentiful, good spots to camp, maybe some magic spring or something. If they find it, there is a bonus of some kind. There are seeds planted here and there all over, if Bugbears are on my encounter lists then there will be evidence of bugbears in the wilderness, but I don't need to write that stuff down, I just have to know. How do they cope with the big baddy, what is the relationship that they have with the other creatures on the list, why haven't they been hunted, how do they keep alive out there. If they rob traders on the road, what are they doing with the spoils? How big is this threat? Is a major Bugbear ruler in the area, if there is I will fully design him. He's got plans and ambitions! Why is he a leader? He had best get results. There is lots to design out there that will improve your enjoyment and the technical quality of your games. If nobody cares about the Bugbear king, and he never shows up, keep him in the back of your mind and store his stats for later; though, I kind of quit stating NPCs. I know that the king has high stats, and my group does enjoy a war game so I might add bonuses to the king and his commanders for Charisma but it's not something that I really need to write down, it is just a habit. Why waste my time with specifics that I don't need to write down? Besides, my players might accidentally let slip that they fear something bigger, and better and I'll want to go with that instead.

is very old school!

Have an exalt ripx187!

[onerom]

Thanks for inspiration guys I will keep you updated, when I will be lucky enough to be able play od&d again!

[The Perilous Dreamer]

Dec 19, 2018 9:06:36 GMT -5 onerom said:

Thanks for inspiration guys I will keep you updated, when I will be lucky enough to be able play od&d again!

We look forward to hearing about it.

[True Black Raven]

onerom you are in a place where it is all new to you and your players, and that is a great place to be. Have fun and don't worry about things.