How I Make and Run Hexcrawls

Most hexcrawl procedures are too complicated for me. I think many rulesets strive to make travel an interesting challenge, while I would rather serve other ends. I want it to be easy to cross a map, but likewise easy to get distracted. Every hex should have effluvia, marginalia, phantasmagoria, anything that provokes the visceral joy of travel through strange places.

The Steps:

0. Come up with a concept and 3-4 themes

• A strong concept is beyond the scope of my ability to briefly explain here, but you do want conflict.
• For Okucenza, the themes were "disquieted local spirits", "the aftereffects of war," and "community-building." Notably, these were the themes for the campaign as well, and everything from the starting classes to additional rules played into this.

1. Get a big hexmap.

• I use a chromebook for my role-play work, so most of my image manipulation is with google drawing. I found a very large hex grid, lettered and numbered online. They come in a variety of comely sizes, or you can make your own.

2. Throw up some coastline and major geography

• One "hex" in my method is 12 miles across, for reference. I don't bother drawing small features like hills or woods. Mostly just rivers, mountains, and notes about settlements I already know I want to include. Without a hexmap, you can show the players something like this:

3. Separate the map into different regions.

• Exaggerate the differences between different parts of the map. In the top-left corner, I imagine a land of holy radiation and devastation. The bottom-left, a depopulated coastal metropolis.
• These regions should be compact enough that you can get a good zoomed-in picture of the region for reference later. But! Don't make more regions than you have good, distinct ideas of what they feel like.

4. Each region has two terrain types that make up their hexes.

• Another rule of thumb! Don't assign these to each hex yet, but come up with them now to help you brainstorm later. So the top left is primarily "petrified trees" and "goodlands"-- like badlands but sanctified. Whereas the bottom left is "thick forests" and "ruins." There will be exceptions, like the occasional mountain or bog. That's fine.

5. Make a million hex descriptions— settlements, landmarks, odd residents. Just a big list based on your themes.

• Make more than you think you need. Your first 200 ideas are not your best 200 ideas.
• These should be settled (not likely to leave the hex), specific (Brief! Key details to distinguish one landmark from a similar one elsewhere), and salient (players will have some feeling about the contents)
• Some examples: 
• Luanist monastery, dedicated to chiseling copies of the Salvation of the World (settled spot, containing servants of a particular faith. They can be helpful, they might be opposed to the party, etc.)
• Abbey served by religious laypeople (social dynamic at play here. Two groups that might have different goals.)
• Xaptian utopia ruins (worth exploring? If the party knows what the Xaptians were like, they might better judge whether to enter. Is there a dungeon entrance?)
• A jade-hilted knife that curses with weapon blindness (This description didn't give context so we can refer to our previous work-- the themes. Maybe it's wielded by some weapon-blind warrior who wants to restart the last war, or it has corrupted a local spirit.)
• In the hollow of a great fallen tree, a witch vivisects a spirit. (Maybe she can hide it from the party? Maybe they want to learn about her findings?)
• In the middle of a clearing, a box shrine to Xapt with prayers stuck inside. (Who left this here? There's probably a mundane solution. It could be a five-minute mystery, and you shouldn't underestimate a succession of fulfilled minor mysteries.)
• Moaning well overlooked by grey myconids (What happens when you drink from it? What are these "myconids" like?)
• Notice how all of these have some evocative image, or convey some mood. This is by design, and when you know what you're going for you will birth a thousand strangenesses.

6. Assign these descriptions to each hex, aiming for variety. 

• Key these by region.
• This is when you assign terrain types to each hex as well. Since you know what the hex descriptions are, you can massage the direct composition. Maybe you had more goodlands hex descriptions than petrified forest descriptions.
• Each region should have multiple meaty hexes and multiple mostly-just-evocative ones. Keep in mind how many hexes contain civilized elements, and any other density issues that should stay aligned with your themes.
• Example:

7. Each region gets its own random encounter table, mostly creatures but also signature traders, mundane wildlife, and weather. 

• For Okucenza, I roll a d20. 1-8 are unique to the region, 9-10 are general, 11-15 are no event but with signs or spoor of 1-8, 16-17 are local wildlife, 18 is a travelling merchant, 19 is notable weather like rainstorms or radiation,  and 20 is "pursuers catch up."
• Example: 
   
  

  Notes: number 7's bazaar refers to a janky market system I use. Number 8 is a link to a random spirit creature from Magic: the Gathering.
• Travelling merchants are based on PKdragon's merchant system, where strange travelers offer a small amount of heroically-relevant goods. Each region has two different merchants, and most merchants can be found in two or more regions.
• Every time the party leaves a situation unfinished, where someone might follow or run into them again, I add them to a list called "Pursuers." Then, when I roll a "pursuers catch up roll," I re-introduce an NPC off this list.

You've made your hexmap. Add whatever processes you need to fulfill your campaign.

Running my Hexcrawls

• You travel through one hex per day on land usually. Half- or quarter-speed along mountains, twice as fast on a river barge, five times as fast on the open ocean.
• Every day of travel, I roll for a random encounter. 
• About 40% of the time there is none, but some are very minor, like seeing an animal. 
• The table also generates an alignment, regardless of event, so that the same hex feels a little different each time. The axes are constructive vs destructive and concord vs discord. So constructive concord with a panther encounter might just be that the normal inhabitants are building something or observing a peaceful ceremony, or that the panther is non-aggressive and happens to be useful.
• You don't heal from resting unless you take a day off travelling. I don't make you track how you get food, but you need to take time or money to acquire rations if you want them to heal you.
• I think that's literally the whole system? It doesn't lack for much.

Considerations on Fantasy Folk, Part 1

D&D tends to minimize the differences between core playable races. In D&D 5e, they usually give you small bonuses to primary attributes, small perks, and maybe a racial language. In 3.5 and Pathfinder, they are similar, giving abilities you can choose from to improve your Character Build.

In earlier editions, non-humans were restricted in what classes they could be, or were a class in and of themselves, but this seldom resulted in fundamental changes to how a character solved problems. If the elf class is simply a wizard with a bow and armor, they are effectively humans with slightly fewer game-rule restrictions.

For the folk of Vain the Sword, I have gone in the opposite direction. Differing species have bodies and minds that lead to very different lived experiences and concerns. The way these concerns affect adventurers emerge through play, but I find it worth considering how communities with different ideas about necessities and abilities might function, in ways that can be reflected at the table. 

In this project, I cannot give considerations on every folk. For instance, talking animals and golems are so varied as to be impossible to consider in their totality. In this first installation, I will be focusing on eulogy, orcs, and serset, since those folk are more common in my current weekly game.

Eulogy (snake-like creatures with no legs. Cold-blooded. Flexible)

• Buildings typically lack stairs or ladders, preferring poles instead.
• In poorer settlements, families may pair off and live in one house during winter to cut down on firewood consumption.
• "The duke's son, who was unfortunately born with legs, had special ramps constructed between his main quarters and the courtyard to help with his disability."
• A fortress hallway with small alcoves behind hidden panels in random hallways, built to hide coiled eulogy to ambush invaders.
• Square beds to facilitate coiling.
• "The ambassador rushed to his room but saw that no one was in it. Suddenly, hissing laughter floated down and he gazed up at the thin rafters to see the assassin--"
• Some meals are offered without utensils, for it is only good manners to swallow them whole.
• Proud parents save the first shedded skin of their children to mix into potions of good fortune.
• The first function of a nursery is to make the mother comfortable for the months spent keeping laid eggs warm.
• Eulogy shackles take the form of a long stick with straps running down it, the prisoner pulled taut and held in place.
• "It is ludicrous that my brother was chosen as heir when I am his clutchmate, and have twice the learning and wit that he does!"
• Miners favor picks, mattocks, and hand-shovels, never something that assumes you can step down on it.
• A slithering eulogy does not need snow shoes, since they can slither. However, to do so is considered dangerous.
• Adventurers can easily use their trusty 10-foot pole as a ladder.
• Nobility often have winter homes in warmer climes or near hot springs.
• Some warriors favor long shields to cover their lower half, since metal armor is not usually practical.
• Travelers commonly carry black, heat-retaining stones in netting during the day, relying on them in the early part of night.
• Passageways can be much smaller when it is assumed that those using them will not be carrying much.
• Thrust-focused weapons are considered weaker.
• Among minor nobility, non-eulogy guests may be presented with light ladders to aid in navigating the household. Higher nobles may even have sections of their homes built for non-eulogy, or staircases built in out-of-the-way locations for the clumsier races.

Orc (can see in darkness and firelight, but not sunlight.)

• It is not uncommon to see an orc walking with a lit torch by daylight. (Yes, this is how this works.)
• Homes lack shutterless windows.
• Settlements often have permanent wooden awnings or cliff overhangs between major locations.
• Hunters encounter nocturnal prey more frequently than other folk do.
• Travelers seldom camp by the road when they can retreat to the shade of trees.
• Someone forced to travel by day without any fire, will walk facing their own shadow.
• In diverse settlements, bells and barkers are replaced with silent alternatives, such as chimes made of colorful fabric.
• Some adventuring parties and military units which are not primarily made up of orcs may assign one as a "night-captain," with the role of directing marches through darkness.

Serset (parasites who control the bodies of those they infest. Live in lakes when without a host. Three-member reproduction that results in the death of participants. Gender based heavily on host-imprinting.)

• All societies are dependent on the proximity of other kinds of folk. There is near-universal emphasis on learning the tongues and customs of neighbors.
• "Lawful" serset pools are known to harshly punish blatant seizure of host bodies, to avoid the reputation of being, as a race, raiders and slavers.
• Depriving someone of a host once they have already inhabited one is to demand a deep sacrifice, on the level of asking a high noble to give up their birthright.
• Pools will always have a complex of buildings beside them to service controllers guarding the community from interlopers or predators. Smallers pools will even have fences.
• In climates with freezing weather, serset will stick together at the bottom of pools or stay in warm barrels for the duration of inclement conditions.
• Everyone has over a hundred siblings. Incest is not taboo.
• "Dungeon" complexes never have lethal traps.

Okucenza Generators

In the style of previous generators, these are primarily for my own use in ongoing Vain the Sword games. They all owe a tremendous amount to myriad writers. The encounter generators are not as filled-in as with previous attempts, because the region of Okucenza is large enough to have different encounter tables in different sections. Each day's travel not only has the potential for an encounter event, but also has an "aignment" that colors the action of the hex, to give the impression that things are constantly changing and that cetrifugal and centripedal forces are acting without the player's intervention.

Edit: now with personalities inspired by Matt Halton's list of NPCs
Edit: now with encounter rolls differentiated by region. If you want inspiration for a random spirit, choose a random spirit card from MTG.
Edit: now with 100 mundane fictional animals.