#hexcrawl

If players follow a road they have been down before, they can choose to skip the hex to hex, watch based travel. And instead "travel along the road."

- they will not discover any landmarks or hex features

- can travel 4 hexes a day (roads through difficult hexes count as 2)

- roll 1 binary encounter check a day, 1-3 encounter, 4-6 no encounter

- no chance of discovery or supply harvest

- party is assumed to finding accommodations to sleep at along the way. Must pay the cost of rations and waterskin in silver.

- loses out on the ability to roll 3d6 to automatically cover food, water, and shelter.

- loses the ability to roleplay at the sleeping locations along the way (taverns, monasteries).

- they can't be stealthy, I may roll to see if factions make note of their travel along the road.

Essentially, they can expedite travel between locations along known roads, in exchange for paying for the trip in silver, having no supply gathering or landmark mapping, and having no roleplay opportunities outside of the random encounters, which have a 3 in 6 chance each day. Time is tracked in days.

Experimenting with what getting lost looks like for my players.

I wanted to have them navigate by landmarks as described in this blog article; however after play testing, the author is right in recommending this technique only be used in areas with the same terrain type.

It did not mesh well with allowing players to see adjacent terrain types due to either 3 mile hex distance to horizon or terrain type being mountainous (high vantage) or plains (open vista).

Partly because we're playing online, I could not find a way of updating the hexes with the terrain type in adjacent areas while also not immediately alerting players that they were lost by changing the terrain tile.

The goal of the article seems to be that there's some player skill involved in backtracking where they went off course based on landmarks. I like the player skill part and the chance for them to get it wrong.

This was not doable if the terrain type was immediately visible as being different than previously revealed.

I had to either give up letting them see adjacent terrain types or having them strategize to get unlost. I decided on the latter. I think strategizing would be too complex for our virtual game.

Current lost rules

- every hex traveled has a 2 in 6 chance of getting lost

- 1 in 6 if traveling to a discovered landmark (or maybe also if traveling along a trail or path?)

- 0 in 6 if following a road (rare)

- lost means roll 1d6, 1-3 = no progress out of current hex. 4-6 = move back to previous hex.

- party can see adjacent hex terrain types if in mountain or plains hex

I think this has simplifies the process while also still rewarding seeking out landmarks. PCs will be encouraged to seek out high points or clear areas to gain information about surrounding areas. While also weighing that mountain hexes take 2 turns to leave.

They will be encouraged to seek out and mark down landmarks on the map because, in the absence of roads, traveling from landmark to landmark is their best chance at not getting lost.

If they get lost twice in a row, they will be considered pixie led, which is for a different post.

It’s single or multiplayer.

Working on map icons for Post Apocalyptic Hexcrawl Deck. Using these specific icons obviously won’t be a requirement for physical mapmaking; they’re just a suggestion. As for the digital version, these will be how you mark your digital map in TTS.